We’re counting down the 40 days to NYWIFT’s 40th Anniversary Muse Awards with a look at some of our favorite honorees, all women of vision and achievement who have contributed to the film and television industry. Join us as we look back at #Muse40for40, and buy your tickets for the Muse Awards on Tuesday, December 10th at nywift.org/muse!
#8: Glenn Close
By Tricia Nolan
Glenn Close had a distinguished career on Broadway, long before she made her feature film debut in 1982’s The World According To Garp, alongside Robin Williams. Yet, it was her role as a psychopathic temptress in the 1987 thriller Fatal Attraction that turned her into a box office darling and a household name. Actress, singer and producer, Close is a seven-time Academy Award nominee, and one of the few performers to be nominated for the top awards in film, theatre, and television. In 2010, Glenn co-founded the nonprofit Bring Change 2 Mind, which is dedicated to encouraging dialogue about mental health, and to raising awareness, understanding, and empathy.
On mental illness: “The mentally ill frighten and embarrass us. And so we marginalize the people who most need our acceptance. What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, more unashamed conversation.”
On working with women: “With the hugely talented women I’ve worked with or observed, it’s not a question about temperament or ego; it’s a question about getting it right. If they’ve got a reputation for being difficult it’s usually because they just don’t suffer fools.”
Tricia Nolan
Tricia Nolan is a veteran writer-producer and emerging director. After a decade of delivering polished, high-quality creative of all sizes, both live-action and animation, at Nickelodeon, MTV and VH!, Nolan was tapped to produce and direct the weekly magazine-style series "What’s Next!" for A&E Networks.
After a successful run as Head of Production at the bi-coastal Dogmatic, Inc., supervising worldwide campaigns for global brands, Nolan produced the documentary "$ellebrity," featuring unfiltered interviews with stars such as Elton John, Jennifer Lopez, Salma Hayek, Sarah Jessica Parker and Jennifer Aniston.
Tricia has directed several short films of her own, which have screened at such prestigious festivals as AFI, Seattle, Nantucket and the Hamptons. Her most recent short, "On The Run," was made as a proof of concept for her upcoming dramatic thriller entitled "In The Grip."
Follow her on twitter @tnolan2 www.tricianolan.com
Related Posts
Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Asha Dahya
Welcome to NYWIFT, Asha Dahya! Asha Dahya is a social impact filmmaker and storyteller. She is the director and producer of an award-winning short documentary about later abortion called Someone You Know, which premiered at the 2024 Athena Film Festival. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for My Name Is Siri, an autism awareness documentary that premiered on PBS. In 2025, Asha executive produced and co-hosted an award-winning audio and video series about Latin America’s Green Wave abortion rights movement called Green Tide Rising. Her latest short documentary is A Tiny Revolution, the story of how Meg Crane invented the first home pregnancy test.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Rachel Schwartz
Welcome to NYWIFT, Rachel Schwartz! Rachel Schwartz has been a staff member at the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) since January 2019, in rising roles as the Manager, then Director, and now Head of Daytime and Children’s & Family Emmy Awards. Prior to that, she worked at the American Theatre Wing, founder of the Tony Awards, for eight years. Therefore, she is halfway to an “administrative EGOT.” Rachel graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern University with a BA in Theatre and a minor in Women’s Studies in 2005. The crowning achievement of her education was her undergraduate thesis on a proposed new voting system for the Primetime Emmys. She has been obsessed with awards shows since sixth grade, when she passed out Oscar ballots to the rest of her class. She is proud to be a native New Yorker, born and raised in Queens.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Linda Nieves-Powell
Welcome to NYWIFT, Linda Nieves-Powell! New York-based Puerto Rican multimedia storyteller Linda Nieves-Powell has spent nearly three decades creating culturally specific, character-driven narratives that center Latina identity. Her work spans theater, film, digital media, and the page, from off-Broadway stages to college campuses nationwide, from a Sundance Screenwriting Lab semi-finalist selection to a Simon & Schuster publication. Her Imagen Award-winning stage work YO SOY LATINA! has been produced at more than 400 colleges across the country and off-Broadway. She is currently completing a screenplay called Idalis and Selenis Go Freestyle.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Sydney Sidner
Welcome to NYWIFT, Sydney Sidner! Sydney is an award-winning filmmaker, screenwriter and educator with an impressive resume of work appearing on TV, film and in the theater. In our interview, she encourages creators to be both passionate and flexible. Read on to learn more.
READ MORE
Comments are closed