#Women Writers
Why “Carol” Failed to Become the Lesbian ‘Brokeback’
Well, that’s that. Lesbians will not have their “Brokeback Mountain” this year after all. That’s because “Carol,” perhaps the most critically acclaimed mainstream film of all time...
Anxiety and Alzheimer’s on Film: January 2016’s Crowdfunding Picks
This month’s crowdfunding post focuses on filmmakers tackling topics rarely discussed in mainstream film. “From Away” highlights racism in an idyllic town, “MNSTR” dramatizes the feeling of...
Juliet Stevenson Set to Star in Polly Steele’s Intergenerational Drama About Mothers and Daughters
Four-time BAFTA nominee and theater vet Juliet Stevenson will likely star in Polly Steele’s "Let Me Go." The drama, an intergenerational story about mothers and daughters tracing back...
Trailer Watch: Sarah Jessica Parker Reconnects With an Italian Ex in ‘All Roads Lead To Rome’
Sarah Jessica Parker is back with another rom com. A trailer has been released for writer-director Ella Lemhagen’s "All Roads Lead To Rome," and as the film’s title suggests,...
Rashida Jones Brings Back Slapstick With TBS’s ‘Angie Tribeca’
"Surely you can’t be serious?" "I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley." Whether you’ll take to the new TBS comedy "Angie Tribeca" depends, I expect,...
2016 Oscar Noms Announced; ‘Brooklyn,’ ‘Room,’ ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ to Compete For Best Picture
2016 won’t go down as the most homogeneous (i.e., exclusionary) year in recent Oscar history. Three female-centric films ("Brooklyn," "Room" and...
Netflix Reboots Post-Divorce Family Sitcom ‘One Day At A Time’ With Rita Moreno-Led Latino Cast
Netflix has given a 13-episode direct-to-series order to a reboot of Norman Lear’s "One Day at a Time," the classic sitcom that ran from 1975 to 1984. The new version will...
Netflix Buys Sian Heder’s ‘Tallulah,’ Starring Ellen Page and Allison Janney
Sian Heder’s feature directorial debut "Talluhlah" has found a home prior to its world premiere at Sundance just over a week away. Netflix is reported to have spent somewhere in the...
Alliance of Women Film Journalists’ EDA Winners: ‘Carol,’ ‘Mad Max,’ Kristen Stewart and More
The Alliance of Women Film Journalists has unveiled the winners of the 2015 EDA Awards. As expected, "Carol" won big. The period romance, written by Phyllis Nagy and starring Cate Blanchett...
Guest Post: Submitting Like a Man: My Year Resubmitting Scripts As A Dude
This is the first installment of the blog Submitting Like A Man (SLAM), created by writer Mya Kagan. The project examines what happens when Mya resubmits scripts to previously rejected...
How Samatha Bee’s New Late Night Show is Tackling Gender Diversity Behind the Scenes
Samantha Bee and her team for her new talk show, "Full Frontal," are putting their money where their mouths are. "The talent is out there, so late-night shows need to stop saying,...
Study: Women Directors’ Ranks Increased in 2015, But Only to 1998 Rates
Female filmmakers enjoyed a slight bump last year in their representation in the film industry, with women directors and those in other key roles (writers, producers, executive producers, editors and...
Elite Zexer’s Sundance Competitor “Sand Storm” Acquired by Beta Cinema
Two weeks ahead of its world premiere at Sundance 2016, the Israeli family drama "Sand Storm" has landed a distribution deal. Written and directed by first-timer Elite Zexer, the...
Ingrid Escajeda to Write, Exec Produce New Drama About Korean-American Celebrity Chef
Ingrid Escajeda is on board to write and executive produce "On the Line," a one-hour drama in development at Fox inspired by chef Sang Yoon, best known as the chef and proprietor...
HBO’s Anita Hill Film ‘Confirmation’ Starring Kerry Washington to Debut in April
Kerry Washington will show us a very different side of D.C. in "Confirmation," her upcoming Anita Hill biopic. Written by Susannah Grant ("Erin Brockovich,"...
2016 BAFTA Noms: Female-Centric Films Well-Represented, Women Directors Sorely Lacking
The BAFTA nominations are in. The good news: A female-centric film, "Carol," is tied for most nominations (with "Bridge of Spies"). The romance about a floundering shop girl...
‘Mustang’ Among Strongest Contenders for France’s Lumieres Awards
"Mustang," France’s 2015 submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, is also racking up nominations across the Atlantic. Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s directorial...
Emma Stone in Talks to Star in Cruella de Vil Origin Story
If there’s anyone who can humanize a famous puppy-killer, it’s probably Emma Stone. So it makes a kind of sense that the actress is in talks to star in "Cruella," an...
‘Inside Amy Schumer,’ ‘Broad City,’ ‘Being Mary Jane’ and More Women-Centric Shows Renewed
Breathe a sigh of relief: lots of your favorite women-centric shows are coming back. Comedy Central has renewed "Inside Amy Schumer" for a fifth season, a seriously no-brainer...
Trailer Watch: Toni Braxton Sells Pain, Not Sex in Lifetime’s ‘Toni Braxton: Unbreak My Heart’
Toni Braxton is getting the biopic treatment. The singer, songwriter and music producer is the subject of Lifetime’s upcoming TV movie "Toni Braxton: Unbreak My Heart," for which an...
Quote of the Day: ‘American Crime’ Writer Julie Hébert on Why Diversity in the Writers Room Matters
"American Crime Story," the limited series that explores issues of race, class and justice through the lens of one story per season, received 10 Emmy nominations for its debut...
Netflix Orders Therapist Thriller ‘Gypsy’ From Creator Lisa Rubin
Netflix has ordered a 10-episode debut season of creator Lisa Rubin’s "Gypsy." Premiering in 2017, the psychological thriller will center on "Jean Holloway, a therapist who...
Jennifer Lawrence on Planned Parenthood Shooting: “It’s an Attack on Women”
With her career-shifting Lenny letter about equal pay, Jennifer Lawrence announced that she’d become one of the biggest feminist voices in Hollywood. The actress has followed...
Julie Delpy’s Romantic Comedy ‘Lolo’ to Be Released By FilmRise
Julie Delpy’s sixth feature will be distributed by FilmRise. The romantic comedy "Lolo" — which Delpy wrote, directed and stars in — will open March 11. The film...
Reese Witherspoon Continues to Push into TV With ABC Divorce Drama
With the pace of filmmaking so slow, it’s no wonder that Reese Witherspoon, a self-described "Type A," is moving into the faster world of television. Witherspoon and her...
Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Masculinity Comedy ‘Chevalier’ to Be Released by Strand
Athina Rachel Tsangari’s latest film, "Chevalier," will be released in the U.S. next spring. That announcement comes from Strand Releasing, the masculinity comedy’s...
Amazon Orders Three New Female-Centric Shows
Amazon has ordered to series a trio of shows about women: a semi-autobiographical dark comedy starring comedian Tig Notaro, a Zelda Fitzgerald bio-series with Christina Ricci in the lead and a...
Jennifer Cho Suhr to Write/Direct Estranged Korean-American Sisters Tale ‘You & Me Both’
Jennifer Cho Suhr will make her directorial debut with "You & Me Both," a road-trip movie about two estranged Korean-American sisters in search of their birth mother. After the death of...
‘Room’ Author/Screenwriter Emma Donoghue on Her “Deeply Feminist” Film and Industry Sexism
The release of "Room" will likely spell the beginning of Brie Larson’s career as an A-list star. While Larson won great favor with critics for her heartbreaking portrayal of a...
July 2015’s New & Noteworthy Women-Created VOD/Webseries: Black Actresses, Desperate Delivery Girls
Both of our VOD picks of the week happen to skew dramatic, focusing on the importance of relationships, be it with your community or your family. Filmmaker Monika Truet’s coming-of-age...
Trailer Watch: Artist and Survivor Amy Everson Creates Concealing/Empowering Costumes in “Felt”
People have all sorts of coping strategies to deal with trauma, but crafting and donning gender-bending superhero costumes is one we haven’t heard before. Blurring fact and fiction,...
Infographic: Women and Hollywood – Better Luck Next Year…Or Next Decade
Change is the keyword in Hollywood these days. A globalizing marketplace, the exportation of work from Los Angeles to every other corner of the world, the replacement of celluloid by digital,...
2013 Emmy Wrap-up
When did watching the Emmy’s become so painful? It wasn’t that I was offended like I was at the last Oscar telecast, but I found the whole thing a bit of a bore. I hate that...
Weekly Update for September 20: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Weekend Enough Said – Written and Directed by Nicole Holofcener You don’t go to a Nicole Holofcener movie to see superheroes save the...
Interview with Nicole Holofcener – Writer and Director of Enough Said
Women and Hollywood: How long does it take you to write a script like this? Nicole Holofcener: 6 months, maybe. WaH: One of the best definitions of your characters, for me, is...
Jess and Mindy — A Look at the Progression of Female Comedy Characters
Much of the conversation about Fox’s Tuesday night comedy lineup focused on two shows by and starring men, the execrable sitcom Dads, which appears to have imported its jokes from Archie...
Trailer Watch: Concussion – Directed by Stacie Passon
Concussion, hands down one of the sexiest movies of the year, premiered at Sundance and later screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival and Outfest to critical praise. Written and directed by...
Weekly Update for September 13: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Weekend Wadjda – Haifaa Al-Mansour What Wadjda (Waad Mohammed) wants to do is simple – ride a bike. That shouldn’t be so...
TV News Roundup for September 13th: Lauren Iungerich’s New Comedy, Katherine Heigl as CIA Officer and Tina Gordon Chism to HBO
Here’s some of the most notable TV news from the past week including Katherine Heigl’s return to television, Tina Gordon Chism developing a comedy series at HBO, Awkward’s Lauren...
J.K. Rowling to Write Harry Potter Inspired Film Series
J.K. Rowling has teamed up with Warner Bros. to write a film series inspired by Rowling’s Harry Potter series. This will be her screenwriting debut. She will be adapting Fantastic Beasts and...
Women Make Up Over Half of the Nominees for the 2013 Man Booker Prize
The Man Booker Prize, Britain’s most prestigious literary award, announced their shortlist earlier this week. Of the 6 nominated, 4 women and 2 men make up the list. Judges for the award have...
Emma Watson to Star in Francesca Gregorini’s Your Voice in My Head
Emma Watson is set to star in Francesca Gregorini’s Your Voice in My Head adapted from Emma Forrest’s memoir of the same title. The film, adapted by Forrest, follows a young woman who is...
Trailer Watch: Ass Backwards – Written by and Starring Casey Wilson and June Diane Raphael
Ass Backwards, written by and starring Casey Wilson and June Diane Raphael, premiered earlier this year at Sundance. The first trailer for the film shows Kate (Wilson) and Chloe (Raphael) who are...
Weekly Update for September 6: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Weekend Touchy Feely – Lynn Shelton Touchy Feely is about about a brother a sister, one who touches for a living and one who makes a point of...
SXSW Rerun: Interview with Hannah Fidell, Lindsay Burdge and Kim Sherman of A Teacher
Originally published on April 9. A Teacher is in theaters in New York and Los Angeles today and is available on VOD. A Teacher is a tense, unflinching piece of film that gets under your...
September Film Preview
As we head out of a strong August for women directed and centric films, we go straight into a September filled with varied and interesting projects from new and veteran women filmmakers. Films this...
Trailer Watch: Palo Alto – Directed by Gia Coppola
There’s another Coppola getting into directing. Gia Coppola’s feature debut (which she wrote and directed) Palo Alto, premiered at Telluride and will screen at Toronto the next...
Women in Film Announces 28th Annual Film Finishing Fund Recipients
Women in Film announced the winners of their 28th annual Film Finishing Fund. The Film Finishing Fund provides cash grants and in-kind production services to complete films that are by or about...
Dakota Johnson to Star in Fifty Shades of Grey
The highly anticipated casting news of who will play Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey in the upcoming Fifty Shades of Grey adaptation was announced yesterday. Dakota Johnson, of Fox’s...
Weekly Update for August 23 & 30: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Check out the women centric, directed and written films playing near you in the next two weeks. Films About Women Opening This Weekend August 23: Short Term 12 ...
Interview with Jill Soloway – Writer and Director of Afternoon Delight
Women and Hollywood got the chance to interview Jill Soloway about her film Afternoon Delight, which she wrote and directed. Afternoon Delight opens in theaters on August 30th. Women...