#Women Writers
Quotes of the Day: Frances McDormand and Brie Larson on the Importance of Inclusion
“I’m here to take responsibility for my actions and restate a call to action,” said Frances McDormand as she took the stage at Women in Film’s Crystal + Lucy Awards. “I have this...
“Americanah” Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Wins 2018 PEN Pinter Prize
Renowned author, feminist, and speaker Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is this year’s recipient of the PEN Pinter Prize. As The Guardian reports, the honor, named after the late author Harold Pinter,...
“The Girlfriend Experience” Co-Creator Amy Seimetz Signs Overall Deal with FX
Hot off directing two episodes of “Atlanta’s” sophomore season, Amy Seimetz has signed an overall deal with the company behind the acclaimed Donald Glover-starrer. According to...
Deborah S. Esquenazi Launches Production Company, Adapting LGBTQ Doc “Southwest of Salem” for TV
“Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four” director Deborah S. Esquenazi “is set to demystify stories and myths about women of color and LGBTQ individuals with her...
Abby Elliott and The Reductress Join Forces for Late-Night Talk Show at Comedy Central
“Saturday Night Live” alumna Abby Elliott is teaming up with Reductress co-creators Beth Newell and Sarah Pappalardo. Comedy Central has ordered a pilot for “The Reductress...
“Vida” Is Getting a Second Season
Emma, Lyn, Mari, Eddy, and the rest of the “Vida” gang are sticking around for a while. Deadline confirms Starz’s groundbreaking half-hour drama has been renewed for a second...
Summer 2018 TV Preview: Mark Your Calendars for These Shows By and About Women
Summer might be known as the season of blockbuster movies, but there are plenty of offerings on TV, too. The next couple months will see a deluge of new and returning series by and about women, so,...
Exclusive: Shirley Henderson Is Grieving but Hopeful in “Never Steady, Never Still” Trailer
“I’m full of memories. I’m full of regrets. I’m full of hope,” says Shirley Henderson in an exclusive new trailer for “Never Steady, Never Still.” The...
Julia Roberts to Star in “Little Bee” Adaptation, Kathleen Robertson to Write
The “Little Bee” adaptation is back on. Deadline reports that Julia Roberts has signed on to the project and writer-actress Kathleen Robertson is writing the script. Nicole Kidman and her...
Shonda Rhimes Bringing Con Artist Anna Delvey’s Story to Netflix
Shonda Rhimes has lined up her first Netflix series. The mogul, who signed a huge deal with Netflix last summer, will adapt Jessica Pressler’s New York Magazine feature on con artist/phony...
Trailer Watch: Alison Brie Steps Back into the Ring in “GLOW” Season 2
Zoya the Destroyer, Liberty Belle, Machu Picchu, Welfare Queen, and your other faves are returning to the ring. A trailer has dropped for “GLOW’s” second season, and it sees the...
Weekly Update for June 8: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING THIS WEEK Ocean’s 8 – Co-Written by Olivia Milch “Ocean’s 8”: Barry Wetcher/Warner Bros. Five years, eight months, 12 days and counting —...
ReFrame Spotlights Gender-Balanced Films and TV with New Stamp
ReFrame, a project sponsored in part by the Sundance Institute and Women in Film, has announced a new tool in the quest to provide information on women’s representation, on-screen and behind...
Kamila Shamsie’s “Home Fire” Wins the 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction
Kamila Shamsie’s “Home Fire” has been named this year’s recipient of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, The Guardian confirms. The prestigious honor recognizes the best...
Women Coming Together: Crowdfunding Picks
Women in charge. Women leading their communities. Women joining together to share power and resources with other women. Whether in real life or fiction, our current political and cultural moment has...
Alethea Jones to Direct Catherine Zeta Jones-Starrer “Queen America” for Facebook Watch
Alethea Jones is signed on to direct the live-action “Barbie,” but before she brings the iconic toy to the big screen she’ll tackle another influential force in the world of beauty...
Billie Holiday Biopic on the Way, Suzan-Lori Parks to Write
Lady Day is getting another biopic treatment. Variety reports that a Billie Holiday film is in the works with R&B artist Andra Day possibly taking on the lead role. Suzan-Lori Parks is writing...
Sharon Horgan to Star in and Produce “Women on the Verge” Series
“Catastrophe” co-creator and star Sharon Horgan is working on yet another TV project. The busy multi-hyphenate is set to star in and produce six-part series “Women on the...
Chelsea Peretti to Topline Andrea Dorfman Comedy “Spinster”
Chelsea Peretti is teaming up with another woman director. The “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” actress just wrapped shooting on Nicol Paone’s “Friendsgiving,” and now she’s...
“Humans” Offers Some of Sci-Fi TV’s Most Touching Explorations of Motherhood
AMC’s “Humans” is, on the surface, a television show about artificial intelligence, and its place within a society that is much like ours. Set mostly in the UK, in a parallel present, the...
TV Adaptation of Trans Activist Juno Dawson’s Memoir on the Way
“The Gender Games” could be coming to the small screen, and Doctor Strange is involved. Benedict Cumberbatch’s SunnyMarch banner has scored TV rights to the memoir by Juno Dawson, a...
Trailer Watch: Hailee Steinfeld’s New Car Is More Than Meets the Eye in “Bumblebee”
Hailee Steinfeld is switching gears from a cappella to an explosion-ridden blockbuster. The “Pitch Perfect 3” star toplines “Bumblebee,” a spinoff of the...
“Younger” Renewed for Season 6
Liza Miller will continue living a double life for at least another year. Variety confirms that “Younger,” the Sutton Foster-led series about a 40-something woman posing as a 20-something...
Margot Robbie to Produce Female Firefighters Pic Based on NYT Article
Margot Robbie has lined up yet another producing project. The “I, Tonya” actress will produce “Firefighters,” a film about the real-life female inmates who took on California...
“Legally Blonde 3” in the Works with Reese Witherspoon
Could Elle Woods be heading to the Oval Office? Reese Witherspoon is nearing a deal with MGM to reprise her role as a sorority president-turned-lawyer for “Legally Blonde 3.” The writers...
Trailer Watch: Viola Davis and Michelle Rodriguez Take Over Their Husbands’ Work in “Widows”
Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki (“The Night Manager”), and Cynthia Erivo’s (“Mr Selfridge”) characters all lose their husbands in the trailer for...
Weekly Update for June 1: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING THIS WEEK One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (Theatrical Re-Release) – Written and Directed by Agnès Varda (One Week Only in NY) Agnés Varda’s enchanting ode to female...
Trailer Watch: “Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin” Explores a Game-Changing Author’s Legacy
Celebrated science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin left behind an extraordinary legacy when she died earlier this year. As the trailer for the upcoming doc “Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin”...
Guest Post: Why I Made a Movie About A Woman Struggling with Mental Health
Guest Post by Sophie Max At the time of writing, my film “Callie” is nearing the end of post-production and preparing to enter the festival circuit. “Callie” is a tale of friendship,...
Trailer Watch: A Mother and Daughter Struggle to Make a New Life in “Pin Cushion”
“I was abandoned as a baby and this old hunchback lady found me in the forest and looked after me. She loved me and raised me and then one day she walked me to the edge of the forest and set me...
HBO Developing Anthology Series Based on “Cat Person” Author’s Upcoming Book
Towards the end of 2017, “Cat Person” took social media by storm. Kristen Roupenian’s viral New Yorker short story about a 20-year-old woman’s evolving relationship with an...
Hailee Steinfeld to Play Emily Dickinson in Apple Series
Hailee Steinfeld’s eclectic resume is expanding. She’ll follow up her blockbuster turn in “Transformers” spin-off “Bumblebee” by playing Emily Dickinson. Apple has...
“Mean Girls” Breaks Broadway Record, Teams Up with Young Women’s Leadership Network
Scoring 12 Tony nominations, shattering a Broadway record, and supporting young women — way to make fetch happen, “Mean Girls!” You go, Glen Coco! The musical adaptation of the...
June 2018 Film Preview
By Beandrea July and Sophie Willard As highlighted in our Summer 2018 Film Preview, this summer is set to impress with its varied range of female-led and woman-helmed films, and that all kicks off...
“The Split” Renewed for a Second Season
We haven’t seen the last of the Defoe family — it’s not as though they’ll ever run out of divorce cases to process. BBC One has renewed “The Split” for a second...
Uma Thurman Joins “Chambers,” Netflix’s Upcoming Supernatural Series
Uma Thurman has booked another TV gig. The Oscar-nominated actress will star in “Chambers,” an hourlong supernatural drama for Netflix that’s created by Leah Rachel...
Screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Honored with Retrospective at The Quad
New York’s Quad Cinema is encouraging audiences to revisit — or discover — the works of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala by hosting a retrospective celebrating the two-time Oscar-winning...
“Claws” Showrunner Janine Sherman Barrois Signs New Overall Deal With WBTV
“Claws” showrunner and exec producer Janine Sherman Barrois is staying put at Warner Bros. Television. She’s signed a new, exclusive multi-year overall deal with the studio,...
Weekly Update for May 25: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Mary Shelley – Directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour; Written by Emma Jensen and Haifaa Al-Mansour (Available on VOD June 1) “Mary Shelley” She will...
Under the Radar: Memory Meets Brooklyn for AOBFF Women Filmmakers
Under the Radar is Women and Hollywood’s newest feature. Published monthly, the post offers a chance for us to highlight works by and/or about women that haven’t received big releases or...
BFI Hosting Two-Month Retrospective of Agnès Varda’s Work
The British Film Institute (BFI) is set to celebrate Agnès Varda with a retrospective. Titled Agnès Varda: Vision of an Artist, the two-month season will take place from June 1 – July 31 at...
Selma Blair Will Star in Maria Gabriela Cardenas’ Feature Debut
After taking on sci-fi in the “Lost in Space” reboot and true crime in “American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson,” Selma Blair has lined up another genre project....
Teaser Watch: Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick are BFFs with Baggage in Thriller “A Simple Favor”
“I need just a simple favor,” Blake Lively tells Anna Kendrick in a new teaser for “A Simple Favor.” “Anything,” says Stephanie (Kendrick), clearly awestruck by...
Summer 2018 Film Preview
By Beandrea July and Sophie Willard This summer’s movie slate boasts an impressive array of female-led and woman-helmed films, from reboots to period pieces, and coming-of-age tales to...
“The Baby-Sitters Club” May Be Coming Back to TV
It’s time to reunite with Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, Stacey, and all your other faves in Stoneybrook. “The Baby-Sitters Club” could be heading back to TV. Deadline reports that a...
New Anthology Series to Spotlight Notable Women Who Didn’t Get NYT Obits
The New York Times is looking to redress some of its shady, sexist history. The newspaper is teaming up with Paramount Television, Anonymous Content, and 3dot Productions for...
Ashley Avis Will Write and Direct “Black Beauty” Remake
“Black Beauty” is getting another update. Ashley Avis has signed on to write and direct the latest adaptation of Anna Sewell’s classic novel about the titular horse, Deadline has...
Ann Dowd and Allison Tolman to Star in Liz Manashil’s Bowie-Inspired “Speed of Life”
Two small screen favorites have teamed up for Liz Manashil’s next feature. “The Handmaid’s Tale’s” Ann Dowd and “Fargo” alumna Allison Tolman are starring in...
Cannes LGBTQ Drama “Rafiki” and SXSW Winner “The New Romantic” Secure Distribution
Two women-helmed festival favorites have scored U.S. distribution. Film Movement acquired North American rights to “Rafiki,” Wanuri Kahiu’s LGBTQ Cannes offering, and The Orchard nabbed...
Study: The Number of Women Screenwriters in the UK Has Barely Changed in 10 Years
In 2017 women represented 11 percent of the writers on the United States’ top 250 films. They accounted for 33 percent of television writers during the States’ 2016-17 season. Obviously,...
Exclusive: Oprah and Ava DuVernay Reflect on Inclusion in “A Wrinkle in Time” Bonus Feature
Ava DuVernay brought “A Wrinkle in Time” to the big screen with a twist of her own. The director ensured that her adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s classic 1963 fantasy novel...