Weekly Update for August 5: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You

Films About Women Opening This Week

The Little Prince — Co-Written by Irena Brignull (Also Available on Netflix)

Inspired by the beloved children’s novel, a young girl (Mackenzie Foy) is being forced to grow up too fast by her overbearing mother (Rachel McAdams). Her life is changed when she meets an elderly aviator (Jeff Bridges), who tells her extraordinary stories of the world he was shown by the Little Prince (Riley Osborne). Through his stories, she learns that what matters most in the world is human connection in this magical, animated fairy tale. (Press materials)

Sun Choke (Also Available on VOD)

As Janie (Sarah Hagan) recovers from a violent psychotic break, she’s subjected each day to a bizarre holistic health and wellness regimen designed, and enforced, by her lifelong nanny and caretaker. But when she develops an obsession with a stranger (Sara Malakul Lane), Janie’s buried demons begin to surface. (Press materials)

Bazodee — Written by Claire Ince

Anita Ponchouri (Natalie Perera), the dutiful Indian daughter of a deep-in-debt businessman (Kabir Bedi), is about to marry a wealthy Londoner (Staz Nair) when a chance encounter with local Trinidadian singer Lee de Leon (Machel Montano) sets things askew. In search of a muse, de Leon agrees to perform at the engagement party for both families. Unable to deny their mutual attraction, and with the excitement of Carnival approaching, Anita must now choose between the answer to her family’s financial prayers and the possibility of real love. (Press materials)

An Art That Nature Makes (Documentary) — Directed by Molly Bernstein (Opens August 10 in NY)

“An Art That Nature Makes” is an in-depth portrait of the contemporary photographer Rosamond Purcell, whose sometimes disturbing but always breathtaking pictures challenge our accepted notions of death and decay, and blur the line between the natural and man-made worlds. (Press materials)

Let’s Be Evil — Co-Written by Elizabeth Morris (Also Available on VOD)

Desperately in need of money to care for a sick parent, Jenny (Elizabeth Morris) takes a job supervising children at a learning center for gifted students. But when she and two other new employees are ushered into a maximum-security underground bunker where eerily robotic children are outfitted with augmented reality glasses, Jenny finds herself thrust into a disturbing technological experiment. (Press materials)

Films About Women Currently Playing

Equity — Directed by Meera Menon; Written by Amy Fox
Bad Moms
Tallulah — Written and Directed by Sian Heder (Also Available on Netflix)
Into the Forest — Written and Directed by Patricia Rozema
Miss Sharon Jones! (Documentary) — Directed by Barbara Kopple
Lace Crater (Also Available on VOD)
Shelley — Co-Written by Maren Louise Käehne
There Is A New World Somewhere — Written and Directed by Li Lu
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie — Directed by Mandie Fletcher; Written by Jennifer Saunders
Summertime — Directed by Catherine Corsini; Written by Catherine Corsini and Laurette Polmanss
Lights Out
Nerve — Written by Jessica Sharzer
Ghostbusters — Co-Written by Katie Dippold
Our Little Sister
The Innocents — Directed by Anne Fontaine; Co-Written by Anne Fontaine, Sabrina B. Karine, and Alice Vial
The Shallows
The Neon Demon — Co-Written by Mary Laws and Polly Stenham
Wiener-Dog
Adult Life Skills — Written and Directed by Rachel Tunnard (Playing in the UK)
Finding Dory
The Witness (Documentary)
Me Before You — Directed by Thea Sharrock; Written by Jojo Moyes
Alice Through the Looking Glass — Written by Linda Woolverton
Presenting Princess Shaw (Documentary) (Also Available on VOD)
Maggie’s Plan — Written and Directed by Rebecca Miller
Sunset Song
Love & Friendship
Dark Horse (Documentary) — Written and Directed by Louise Osmond
The Meddler — Written and Directed by Lorene Scafaria
Zootopia

Films Directed by Women Opening This Week

Five Nights in Maine — Written and Directed by Maris Curran (Also Available on VOD)

After his wife dies in a tragic car accident, Sherwin (David Oyelowo) is called to Maine by his estranged, terminally ill mother-in-law Lucinda (Dianne Wiest). Grappling with a lifetime of disagreements, Lucinda and Sherwin find themselves forced to cope with their failings and grief in a quiet journey of empathy, compassion, and healing. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Maris Curran.

Amateur Night — Co-Written and Co-Directed by Lisa Addario

Guy Carter (Jason Biggs) is an award-winning graduate student of architecture. He’s got a beautiful wife and a baby on the way. The problem? Guy has been trying to find work in his field for a year with no luck. At wit’s end, his wife Anne (Jenny Mollen) finds him a job as a “driver” on Craigslist. Guy shows up for the interview thinking he’ll be delivering pizzas, but quickly realizes it’s a job driving prostitutes. With money too scarce to turn down, he goes for it — which is where he meets Nikki (Janet Montgomery), the tough-as-nails, unapologetic sex worker, and her two hilarious and foul-mouthed cohorts, Jaxi and Fallon (Bria Murphy and Ashley Tisdale). Over the course of one wild and sordid night, Guy proves that he has what it takes to be the responsible father his family deserves. (Press materials)

Olympic Pride, American Prejudice (Documentary) — Written and Directed by Deborah Riley Draper (Opens in NY and LA)

“Olympic Pride, American Prejudice” explores the experiences of 18 African American Olympians who defied Jim Crow and Adolf Hitler to win hearts and medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Set against the strained and turbulent atmosphere of a racially divided America, which was torn between boycotting Hitler’s Olympics or participating in the Third Reich’s grandest affair, the film follows 16 men and two women before, during, and after their heroic turn at the Summer Olympic Games in Berlin. (Press materials)

Richard Linklater: Dream is Destiny (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Karen Bernstein

An intimate look at the career of director Richard Linklater, whose humble DIY beginnings in Texas gave birth to a career of innovative and iconic filmmaking. (Press materials)

collective:unconscious — Co-Written and Co-Directed by Lily Baldwin, Frances Bodomo, Josephine Decker, and Lauren Wolkstein

A man and his grandmother hide out from an ominous broadcast. The Grim Reaper hosts a TV show. The formerly incarcerated recount and reinterpret their first days of freedom. A suburban mom’s life is upturned by the beast growing inside of her. And a high school gym teacher runs drills from inside a volcano. What happens when five of independent film’s most adventurous filmmakers join together to literally adapt each other’s dreams for the screen? “collective:unconscious” will transport you to a place in-between sleep and consciousness. (SXSW)

Films Directed by Women Currently Playing

Women He’s Undressed (Documentary) — Directed by Gillian Armstrong; Written by Katherine Thomson
Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You (Documentary) — Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Indian Point (Documentary) — Directed by Ivy Meeropol
Our Kind of Traitor — Directed by Susanna White
Weiner (Documentary) — Co-Written and Co-Directed by Elyse Steinberg
Money Monster — Directed by Jodie Foster

Films Written by Women Opening This Week

Nine Lives — Co-Written by Gwyn Lurie

Tom Brand (Kevin Spacey) seems to have it all — except time to spend with his family. After he buys a cat for his daughter from a mysterious pet store, he suddenly finds himself trapped in the animal’s body. Now Tom only has a week to reconcile with his family or stay stuck as a cat forever. Christopher Walker and Jennifer Garner also star. (Press materials)

Films Written by Women Currently Playing

The Infiltrator — Written by Ellen Brown Furman
The BFG — Written by Melissa Mathison
High-Rise — Written by Amy Jump

TV Premieres This Week

Guns on Campus: Tamron Hall Investigates (Documentary) (Premieres August 7 on Investigation Discovery)

August 1, 1966. Standing atop the University of Texas at Austin’s iconic clock tower, 25-year-old engineering student Charles Whitman holds a high powered rifle and sprays the campus with gunfire for a terrifying 96 minutes. By day’s end, Whitman and 16 others are dead. The carnage constitutes the first major shooting on an American campus. This August, on the 50th anniversary of the Tower Shooting, the University of Texas at Austin is confronted with a very different challenge: implementing SB11, the latest gun law out of the Texas Legislature that allows students to carry concealed weapons on campus and in classrooms. (Press materials)

Take My Wife (Series Premieres August 11 on Seeso)

Newlyweds Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher are joined by a lineup of funny friends in this show following the young married couple as elements of their domestic lives provide material for the underground standup showcase they run. (SXSW)