#Women Writers
Georgia Oakley’s Venice Winner “Blue Jean” Acquired by Magnolia Pictures
“Blue Jean” has secured North American distribution on the heels of its world premiere at Venice Film Festival, where it landed the Giornate degli Autori People’s Choice Award....
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Liliane Mutti – “Miúcha, The Voice of Bossa Nova”
Born in Salvador, Brazil, Liliane Mutti is the founder of the Ciné Nova Bossa Association in Paris. She produces and directs films with strong political engagement, such as “Ecocide,”...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Sophie Kargman – “Susie Searches”
Sophie Kargman is a director, writer, producer, and actor based in Los Angeles. Her short film “Query,” which she also co-wrote and produced, had its world premiere at the 2020 Tribeca Film...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Tamana Ayazi – “In Her Hands”
Tamana Ayazi is a filmmaker and journalist from Afghanistan. She has a background in business, sports, and activism. She is a NatGeo explorer who uses storytelling as a tool to advocate for equality...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Amy Redford – “Roost”
Amy Redford’s career in the creative arts spans over three decades as a director, producer, and actor in film, television, music videos, and theater. “The Guitar” marked her directorial...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Bess Wohl – “Baby Ruby”
Bess Wohl is a writer, director, and playwright. In theater, her play “Grand Horizons” was nominated for a Tony Award. In film and television she has developed projects with Amazon, HBO,...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Aitch Alberto – “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe”
Aitch Alberto is a writer and director born and raised in Miami, Florida. She is a Sundance Episodic Lab fellow, the recipient of a Skowhegan Artist Residency, a Yaddo fellowship, and a Latino...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Maggie Levin and Vanessa Winter – “V/H/S/99”
Maggie Levin is a filmmaker with rock ‘n’ roll roots. She served as second unit director and credit designer for Universal’s “The Black Phone,” in theaters now....
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Mary Nighy – “Alice, Darling”
Mary Nighy is a UK-based director who has directed episodes of “Industry,” a new series for HBO and Bad Wolf, and “Traces,” a new series for Red Productions. Nighy was the...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Vera Drew – “The People’s Joker”
Vera Drew (she/her) is an accomplished LGBTQ+ director and editor who has worked in TV and film for nearly a decade. She recently directed Season 12 of Tim Heidecker’s “On Cinema at...
Trailer Watch: Essie Davis Will Go to Any Lengths to Get Her Kids Back in “The Justice of Bunny King”
Described by director Gaysorn Thavat as “a social justice action film about motherhood,” “The Justice of Bunny King” sees the titular character (Essie Davis, “The...
Pick of the Day: “True Things”
I love stories that give their female characters the space and compassion to be messy, stories that are unconcerned if, on paper, they’re flirting with the misogynist “crazy woman”...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Selcen Ergun – “Snow and the Bear” (“Kar ve Ayı”)
Selcen Ergun is a director and screenwriter from Turkey. She began her career as an assistant director, working on many national and international productions. Her short films...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Malou Reymann – “Unruly”
Malou Reymann is a director and screenwriter who graduated from the National Film and Television School in England. Her debut feature, “A Perfectly Normal Family,” which premiered at...
Octavia Spencer, Krista Vernoff, & Meghann Plunkett Bringing Ashley Elston Novel “First Lie Wins” to Hulu
Octavia Spencer is collaborating with “Grey’s Anatomy” showrunner Krista Vernoff and “Station 19” writer Meghann Plunkett on a Hulu adaptation of Ashley Elston’s...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: V.T. Nayani – “This Place”
V.T. Nayani is a director, producer, and writer. She is a recipient of the UN Women Yvonne M. Hebert Award for filmmakers and photographers. Most recently, she completed her residency in the...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Sinéad O’Shea – “Pray for Our Sinners”
Sinéad O’Shea is an award-winning filmmaker and writer. Her first feature documentary, “A Mother Brings her Son to be Shot,” premiered at CPH:DOX 2018 where it was nominated for a...
Trailer Watch: Jessica Chastain Risks It All to Protect Her Patients in “The Good Nurse”
Jessica Chastain crosses paths with a Dr. Death-type in “The Good Nurse.” A new trailer for the Netflix thriller introduces us to Amy (Chastain), a single mom dealing with long shifts at...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Laura Baumeister – “Daughter of Rage”
Laura Baumeister was born and raised in Nicaragua and trained at Mexico’s Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica. A sociologist as well as a filmmaker, Baumeister has directed the...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Alice Winocour – “Paris Memories”
Alice Winocour directed her first feature film in 2011, “Augustine.” It was selected for Cannes’ Critics Week and nominated for a César Award for the Best First Film. Her second...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Carolina Markowicz – “Charcoal”
Carolina Markowicz is a screenwriter and director based in São Paulo, Brazil. Her short films have won many international awards and have played in more than 200 festivals worldwide including TIFF,...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Gail Maurice – “Rosie”
Gail Maurice is a fluent Cree/Michif-speaking actor and an award-winning independent filmmaker and Arts Laureate. She is a recipient of the Hnatyshyn Foundation Indigenous Award for Excellence in the...
Trailer Watch: Mila Kunis Is the “Luckiest Girl Alive”
“I don’t know what’s me and what part I invented,” Mila Kunis admits in a new trailer for “Luckiest Girl Alive.” Netflix’s adaptation of Jessica...
TIFF 2022 Preview: Indigenous Icons, Women Warriors, Heroic Sisters, and More
Summer is winding down just as chatter about awards contenders is starting to heat up. The 46th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is nearly upon us, and the fest’s...
Olympian & Grammy Nominee Savanah Leaf Teams with A24 on Her Feature Debut “Earth Mama”
Savanah Leaf is getting backing from A24 on the next chapter of her remarkably varied career. The former Olympian is making her feature directorial debut with “Earth Mama,” a...
Nell Tiger Free Will Lead “Omen” Prequel with Arkasha Stevenson Directing
Nell Tiger Free has boarded another hair-raising project. Deadline reports that the “Servant” actress, who plays a creepy nanny on the Apple TV+ psychological thriller, has booked...
Teaser Watch: Sally El Hosaini Spotlights Refugee Sisters & Olympic Hopefuls in “The Swimmers”
Set to open this year’s edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, “The Swimmers” depicts two refugees’ epic journey from war-torn Syria to the 2016 Rio Olympics. A...
Pick of the Day: “Loving Highsmith”
“Loving Highsmith” assumes that you are familiar, to some degree, with the work of author Patricia Highsmith — or at least the numerous screen adaptations of her novels, such as...
Eva Vitija on Paying Tribute to “The Price of Salt” Author Patricia Highsmith in “Loving Highsmith”
Eva Vitija has written many feature film scripts for cinema and television, including “Meier,” “Marilyn,” “Madly in Love,” and “Sommervögel.”...
September 2022 Film Preview
The festival scene is heating up this month, with Venice, Telluride, and Toronto premiering a bevy of potential awards contenders. Thankfully, there’s also plenty to look forward to screening...
September 2022 Television Preview
Whether September means returning to school or returning to work, there are a number of shows premiering that our Women and Hollywood readers are sure to devour. From documentaries and dramas to...
Trailer Watch: Anna Diop Is a “Nanny” Who Is Being Haunted in Nikyatu Jusu’s Debut Feature
“The spirits are trying to warn you. Do not ignore the signs,” Anna Diop is told in a new trailer for “Nanny.” Nikyatu Jusu’s award-winning feature debut sees the...
Trailer Watch: Jamila C. Gray Is a Rapper “On the Come Up” in Sanaa Lathan’s Feature Directorial Debut
“Once upon a time there was a girl named Bri/That’s me,” newcomer Jamila C. Gray informs us, via improvised spoken word, in the trailer for Sanaa Lathan’s Toronto Film...
Jenna Lamia Will Showrun and EP Netflix Adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand’s “The Perfect Couple”
Netflix is closing out the summer by bringing a bestselling beach read to the small screen. According to Deadline, an adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand’s “The Perfect Couple” is being...
Marlee Matlin Exec Producing Limited Series Based on Middle-Grade Holocaust Memoir “Signs of Survival”
A middle-grade memoir about two Jewish sisters, one Deaf and one hearing, fighting to survive during the Holocaust, is making its way to the small screen, with the help of Marlee Matlin. The Oscar...
Pick of the Day: “Everything I Know About Love”
“Everything I Know About Love” is a platonic love story as full of longing and heartbreak as any romance. The series adaptation of Dolly Alderton’s best-selling memoir charts the...
Sally El Hosaini and Hildur Guðnadóttir to Receive TIFF Tribute Awards
Egyptian filmmaker and screenwriter Sally El Hosaini and Academy Award-winning Icelandic artist and composer Hildur Guðnadóttir are set to be honored with TIFF Tribute Awards. The former will be...
Kay Cannon to Direct Wedding Comedy from Taylor Jenkins Reid and Ashley Rodger
“Blockers” helmer Kay Cannon is teaming up with best-selling author Taylor Jenkins Reid on a new original comedy for Sister. Variety reports that Cannon will direct the pic, with Jenkins...
Amy Aniobi Developing Vanessa Walters’ Upcoming Novel “The Nigerwife” as HBO Series
HBO mainstay Amy Aniobi has yet another project in the works at the cabler. The “Insecure” writer-producer-director, “Two Dope Queens” showrunner, and recent “Rap...
Trailer Watch: Kate Hudson & Jeon Jong-seo Lead Ana Lily Amirpour’s “Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon”
Kate Hudson befriends a fugitive who has escaped from the Home of Mentally Insane Adolescents in “Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon.” A trailer just dropped for Ana Lily Amirpour’s...
Trailer Watch: Sandra Alvarez Takes a Look at the “InHospitable” U.S. Hospital System
“Today, what we see is that everyone but the one percent is at risk of financial disaster, from even a relatively minor healthcare encounter,” we are told in the new trailer for...
Margarethe von Trotta to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at European Film Awards
Trailblazing German filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta is set to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the European Film Academy for her outstanding body of work. A press release announced the...
Trailer Watch: Allison Janney & Jurnee Smollett Team Up to Rescue a Child in Anna Foerster’s “Lou”
“We all have a past. We all have secrets,” says Allison Janney in a new trailer for “Lou.” Anna Foerster’s action pic sees the Oscar winner playing Lou, a woman who is...
Sam Bee & Soledad O’Brien Have Comedic Docuseries About Women’s Healthcare Crisis in the Works
If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry. That seems to be Samantha Bee and Soledad O’Brien’s take on the dumpster fire that is U.S. women’s healthcare. Bee and O’Brien are...
Awkwafina, Debra Granik, and Arianna Bocco Among Woodstock Film Festival Honorees
Awkwafina, Debra Granik, and Arianna Bocco are set to receive honorary awards at the 23rd edition of Woodstock Film Festival, per Deadline. “Crazy Rich Asians” breakout star Awkwafina...
Pick of the Day: “Bad Sisters”
I’m pleased to confirm Sharon Horgan has made yet another slam-dunk of a show. She’s following up “Catastrophe,” “This Way Up,” “Motherland,”...
Pick of the Day: “The Legend of Molly Johnson”
At first blush, “The Legend of Molly Johnson” comes across as a white feminist story. It sets itself up as a Western about a heavily pregnant woman who can shoot as well as any man and...
Ariana DeBose Teams Up with Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy for “House of Spoils”
Oscar-winning “West Side Story” breakout Ariana DeBose is going from singing to shrieking. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Broadway star will lead “House of Spoils,”...
Trailer Watch: Natascha McElhone Leaves the Church & Gets a Fresh Start in Valerie Buhagiar’s “Carmen”
“Why don’t you have anyone?” Natascha McElhone is asked in a new trailer for “Carmen.” From writer-director Valerie Buhagiar, the pic, set in 1980s Malta, tells the...
Production Underway on “A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow,” Katherine Fairfax Wright Directing
Production on “A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow” has commenced in Yorkshire, England. The adaptation of Laura Taylor Namey’s YA bestseller hails from director Katherine...
Lise Akoka & Romane Gueret’s Cannes Winner “The Worst Ones” Lands North American Distribution
Kino Lorber has landed worldwide rights in U.S. and anglophone Canada to “The Worst Ones” ahead of its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Lise Akoka and...