Acting Up: Interview With Casting Director Brette Goldstein
Casting director Brette Goldstein has cast over 40 independent films—many of which have won awards and been official selections at major film fests, including Sundance, Tribeca and Cannes—as well as numerous commercials and plays and several TV and digital projects. Goldstein was the resident casting director at the Folger Elizabethan Theatre in Washington, DC, for 10 seasons, and...
READ MORETerry’s Picks: Women in Film Fund, Olive Kitteridge & Hillary Swank
Frances McDormand in Olive Kitteridge. Photograph courtesy HBO. Watching: Hilary Swank discuss her starring role in The Homesman on The Hollywood Masters, saying she believes it’s a “feminist movie and shows how far we need to go.” Congratulating: the 9 talented grantees of the Women in Film Fund. Recommending: HBO’s mini-series Olive Kitteridge, starring Frances McDormand in an amazing...
READ MORERoad to Muse: NYWIFT to Honor Maggie Gyllenhaal, Wanda Sykes, Dawn Ostroff, Mary Bailey & Abigail Disney
//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/458178782?et=lnqRodaISTRmsT2OR69EjA&sig=TZ5R8AZ-BTJXFK7fsRp1kIEQ1Pm2mZEAE7FZyLgG55c= Maggie Gyllenhaal opening night of The Real Thing on Broadway. Variety has announced the honorees of New York Women in Film & Television’s 2014 Muse Awards. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Wanda Sykes, Condé Nast Entertainment president Dawn Ostroff, and script supervisor Mary Bailey (The Bling Ring, A League of Their Own) will be honored for “Vision and Achievement” at...
READ MORETerry’s Picks: ‘Rare Birds of Fashion,’ Women and Hollywood Gets a Podcast & Made In NY Awards
Fundraising video for Rare Birds of Fashion. Supporting: Lily Hayes Kaufman’s Indiegogo campaign to raise funds for Rare Birds of Fashion, a new comedy web series about two funny and smart entrepreneurs who launch a plus-size fashion line. Check out: the newly launched podcast by NYWIFT member Melissa Silverstein’s Women and Hollywood. Congratulating: NYWIFT members Lydia Dean Pilcher and Rachel Watanabe-Batton, along with Mary Jo Winkler, for...
READ MOREWeekly Roundup: Celebrity News & Great Career Advice
//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/458413840?et=H_Ggw_aTRaJG4L5wtrF1Zw&similar=on&sig=LJPxgONmHu0CpC2IQcweSa_ToKQ09ngsFVZXa3Hgrws= Allison Janney and Anna Faris will host the 2015 People’s Choice Awards. Producer Betsy Beers wants girls to be “strong and complicated.” Despite success, Hilary Swank didn’t always embrace her strength. Valuable advice from a failed Kickstarter fundraiser. Lisa Kudrow encourages actors to “try to get as much as you can because you never know when you’re [sic] time’s up.”...
READ MOREWeekly Roundup: ‘Ellentube,’ Career Advice & ‘Ugly Truths’
//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/455837064?et=JrGKzyWoTR1fP8xe-K4mSw&similar=off&sig=RMWoAKv3CxOc8Zz4bA_T9lA19k3_DE-ssKVm-mVjlCY= Ellen launches Ellentube (cue dance music) and continues ruling media. Francis McDormand says her new role as Olive Kitteridge will compete with Marge Gunderson. This TED Talk explains why you’re probably not being promoted. (Video) From Happy Endings to USA’s Benched, Eliza Coupe keeps us laughing. These day jobs ideas are perfect for actors. Transparent creator Jill Soloway shares some...
READ MORESign Up for NYWIFT’s November Events: Women Aren’t Funny, The Only Real Game & Member Shorts Program
//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/451130220?et=AfAij2WgR-94RQjF_E9aOA&similar=off&sig=nzdBJqY-zyqmHJjmsUfNczVesB6eNNCg0aP22-ObJuE= Lea Delaria poses at Logo TV’s ‘Trailblazers’ at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on June 23, 2014 in New York City. Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Logo TV Women Aren’t Funny: Debunking the Myth – November 6, 5:30 PM NYWIFT and Caroline’s On Broadway have teamed up to create Women Aren’t Funny: Debunking the...
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: Pitch Me
Photo via Go Into the Story. Ninety seconds is more than enough time to pitch a well-defined story. The elements that make a story interesting and easy to envision, when stripped of less important trappings, can fit on an index card. Nowhere was this more apparent than at the Austin Film Festival Pitch Finale Party...
READ MORETerry’s Picks: A ‘Toolkit’ to Prove Women-Led Projects Make Money, ‘Dear White People’ & Salke Is Honored
Dear White People. Cheering on: NYWIFT member Lydia Dean Pilcher. She’s working with the Producers Guild of America to create a “toolkit” of stats to prove that women-led projects are lucrative business both here and abroad. Recommending: Dear White People, a film produced by Lena Waithe and Ann Le. I was especially impressed by Tessa Thompson’s performance....
READ MOREWeekly Roundup: Cristela Alonzo, Tyra Banks & Leslie Jones Have People Talking This Week
//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/456851866?et=2Yj7CzyBTWR_MdOKDO0w7g&similar=off&sig=ap9Tm_aCjnrHt-kIKqoRA8CNc2OVtaVLel4rIggNKNc= Cristela Alonzo’s new show is great; her personality is even better! Tickets are still available for the Women’s Media Awards on Oct. 29. Tyra Banks has a “Fab” new talk show coming next fall. Actors, these simple tips will help TV/film crews not hate you. SNL has a new cast member—meet Leslie Jones! Deborah Norville,...
READ MORELee Grant: From Blacklisted Actress to Hollywood Trailblazer
Lee Grant with Sidney Poitier in In the Heat of the Night. I have been a huge fan of Academy Award winner Lee Grant for years. I’ve always enjoyed seeing her perform as an actress—her choices always seemed intelligent, interesting and different. Grant’s off-camera story of being Hollywood blacklisted for 12 years and her struggle to return to the industry is...
READ MORE#TBT Flix Not to Miss: ‘Vagabond’
When I first saw Vagabond (1985) by French New Wave filmmaker Agnès Varda, it was a revelation. Varda’s story begins with finding a woman’s frozen body lying in a ditch, and the movie pieces together the last weeks of the young woman’s life through interviews with people who met her on her travels. Sandrine Bonnaire gives...
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: Well, Obviously
Photo via Go Into the Story. The post “Writing Advice So Obvious It Gets Overlooked” covers the most fundamental of all story fundamentals (thanks to the marvelous writerlyn at Musings from a Young Hollywood Professional for reblogging this brilliance). It is advice that deserves a thorough looking over. Whose story is it? Very obvious, but...
READ MORETerry’s Picks: Tangerine Entertainment Juice Award, Patricia Highsmith & Glass Ceilings
Still image of Caryn Waechter’s The Sisterhood of Night. Congratulations: to director Caryn Waechter for receiving the Tangerine Entertainment Juice Award for The Sisterhood of the Night, produced by NYWIFT member Lydia Dean Pilcher, at the Woodstock International Film Festival. Happy: to see that another Patricia Highsmith novel has been made into a movie. The Two Faces of January is...
READ MOREWeekly Roundup: NYWIFT Exec Director on Lack of Women in Hollywood
//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/167353543?et=WxkncLmSTPJFGW2FE2fifg&similar=off&sig=BxRWIPRE0OUtBt4qRWCy15LpqzDfGJl7SxdKSG9pagE= Terry Lawler, Executive Director of New York Women in Film & Television. BBC New asks, Where are the women in Hollywood? NYWIFT Executive Director Terry Lawler answers. Tribeca Film Festival official entry deadline is coming up soon! The Broad City season finale shows why Comedy Central renewed it. (Video) Five questions with CNN International anchor Robyn Curnow. What are...
READ MOREVintAge: Celebrating Older Women Artists
On October 18, 2014 (1 pm-5:30 pm), Women in the Arts & Media Coalition will hold one of its best-loved events, VintAge, at MIST Harlem. The event—co-sponsored by New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT), The Dramatists Guild, The League of Professional Theatre Women, SAG-AFTRA and MIST Harlem—celebrates the achievements of women in the arts and media as they age....
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: Bad Contractors Build Great Characters
Photo via Go Into the Story. Like badly built houses, when your characters suffer from faults in their very foundation they can get by just fine with good weather. But when conditions turn ugly, their weaknesses begin to show and the drama starts to happen. To make a really great character, think like a bad...
READ MOREWomen’s Film Preservation Fund & Alice Guy-Blaché
Still from Alice Guy-Blaché’s Mixed Pets (1911). New York Women in Film & Television and Alice Guy-Blaché make a perfect pair. The organization’s Women’s Film Preservation Fund (WFPF) helped to preserve two of her shorts, Matrimony’s Speed Limit (1913) and A House Divided (1913), as part of its inaugural project. Mixed Pets (1911), Guy-Blaché’s earliest extant film from her studio Solax, was preserved through a WFPF grant...
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