World Premiere: Gender Equality PSA ‘Little Leading Ladies’
Hashtag created for Little Leading Ladies campaign. For the past week New York Women in Film & Television and Adorama Rentals have been sharing behind-the-scenes, interviews and insights into the making of the Little Leading Ladies PSA. Director and NYWIFT member Aubrey Smyth was quoted in the first post on her inspiration to make the short: “I have been...
READ MOREWeekly Roundup: Critics, Criticism & Where Are All the Women?
//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/169386090?et=qqo2WkdoSDF_5TVbbHpyOg&sig=4nRWssE736Soy2vAmH2NNoTznl3ZFl4CTa1MUX4kSuY= New York Times critic Alessandra Stanley defends her article about Shonda Rhimes. The Pioneering Women Directors of the DGA event was filled with celebration and discouraging statistics. In a witty interview, director Nicole Holofcener talks directing features, the casting process, and much more. A sad fact about fiction: Career women are more underrepresented on screen than in real life. ...
READ MOREWeekly Roundup: ‘OITNB’ Showrunner on Hollywood, Women Directors ‘Flip the Script,’ Remembering Bacall & Williams
//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/453186152?et=o9NkiCh-TK1tizzWkP_gvg&sig=SRE6KUelvaAjhLqoevg-gQilY_muFxOiLBPH9h9poGk= “We all want our f— you money,” ‘OITNB’ showrunner Jenji Kohan. Six powerhouse women directors who are “flipping the script” in Hollywood big time! Writers, are you developing a marketable screenwriting brand? Christina Hendricks brings 1960s sensibility into the present day (Video). Disney announces its 2014-2016 Directing Program participants. Judy Greer loves to audition and never feels like she’s...
READ MORE#TBT Flix Not to Miss: ‘Gas Food Lodging’
Gas Food Lodging (1992) by Allison Anders is one of those films that has stayed with me over the years. It resonated at the time I saw it as well as years later when I decided to revisit it. Anders has directed a few gems, but this is my favorite. It’s gritty without being mean, hopeful...
READ MORENYWIFT Announces 2014 Women’s Film Preservation Fund Grantees
Alice Guy-Blaché (image: Wikipedia Commons). New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) has announced the grantees of this year’s Women’s Film Preservation Fund (WFPF). Founded in 1995 by NYWIFT in conjunction with The Museum of Modern Art, the fund is the only program dedicated to preserving the cultural legacy of women in the industry....
READ MORETerry’s Picks: Vanessa Williams, ‘Thelma & Louise’ & Diversity in UK Films
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READ MORE‘The Lighthouse Project’ Film Saga
Erica Fae and Jane Applegate in front of Moose Peak Light on a recent scouting trip to Jonesport, ME. Photo credit: The Applegate Group. Believe you can and you’re halfway there. —Theodore Roosevelt Joining a protest march to the U.S. Capitol on a snowy day in March led me to producing a feature this summer, set on...
READ MORETerry’s Picks: Women Directors, ‘Obvious Child’ & ‘Reckless’
Not surprised by: this infographic (above) from Women and Hollywood about how major studios have released very few films directed by women over the last five years. Really loved: Obvious Child, a funny, well-made and important movie about the realities of women’s lives. Caught the premiere of: Reckless, a new show that has many more women working on every...
READ MORENYWIFT Fund for Women Filmmakers Extends Deadline
It Felt Like Love, winner of the Nancy Malone Marketing and Promotion Grant and a 2013 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection. New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) provides grants to women filmmakers to complete and promote their film projects. This year, those grants include a new addition: the Ravenal Foundation Grant, supporting a woman second-time feature film...
READ MORETerry’s Picks: ‘Caroline’s Wedding’ & Sony’s Diverse Directors Program
Supporting: former NYWIFT staff member Easmanie Michel’s Kickstarter campaign for her first feature, Caroline’s Wedding, adapted from a story by Edwidge Danticat. Glad to hear about: Sony Pictures Television’s Diverse Directors Program, where “participants may be selected to shadow directors on episodes of scripted SPT series.” Applications are being accepted until June 6. Reading: Vogue’s article on...
READ MORETerry’s Picks: ‘No Cannes Do’ and #readwomen2014
Love: the NO CANNES DO info graphic by Melissa Silverstein of Women and Hollywood showing the appalling lack of opportunities extended to women directors by the Cannes Film Festival—a reflection of the situation of the industry as a whole, but this does not excuse it. Checking Out: the report on women working in independent film by...
READ MOREFlix Not to Miss: ‘Enough Said’
Nicole Holofcener is one of those rare directors who consistently delivers solid films and Enough Said is one of her best. This is the first time she worked with iconic actors James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and she brings them both to wonderful new places. The film is funny, awkward, uncomfortable and ultimately life-affirming, reminding us that...
READ MORETerry’s Picks: Science, Activism, and Hollywood Called Out, Again
Recently watched and recommending: Decoding Annie Parker, a film that happily recognizes women scientists, with the upside of being a thoughtful and well-made movie. Congratulations: to DP Jendra Jarnagin for gracing the cover of MovieMaker Magazine’s Activism in Film issue. A hat off: to The New York Times movie critics for calling out Hollywood by asking, “So …...
READ MORENYWIFT’s May Events: Reality TV, Crowdfunding, and More
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READ MOREFlix Not to Miss: ‘It Felt Like Love’
It Felt Like Love, by first-time feature director Eliza Hittman, follows 14-year-old Lila (a perfectly cast Gina Piersanti) as she pursues an older teenage boy. There are a few passing similarities between It Felt Like Love and Andrea Arnold’s similar themed Fish Tank. Hittman distinguishes herself with intimate closeups and following subjects with tracking shots through parties and wooded areas of outer Brooklyn. This...
READ MOREFlix Not to Miss: ‘Nowhere Boy’
Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, Nowhere Boy follows The Beatles’ John Lennon (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) as a teenager finding his way, learning to play guitar, and meeting future bandmates Paul McCartney and George Harrison. Nowhere Boy explores the little-known family dynamic that played out in Lennon’s life before he toured with The Beatles. After being raised by his Aunt...
READ MORENYWIFT Success Story: ‘In Montauk’ and the Value of PR
Lukas Hassel and Nina Kaczorowski in a scene from In Montauk, written and directed by NYWIFT member Kim Cummings. Photo by Aja Nisenson. Independent filmmaking on a micro-budget is a lonely business. People come and go throughout the process. As the filmmaker, you’re the only constant day in and day out. It’s not that you...
READ MOREWomen-Directed Films at Queens World Film Festival
Katia, directed by Anna Shishova, is a nominee for Best Documentary Feature and Best Cinematography at the Queens World Film Festival. The Queens World Film Festival runs March 4-9, 2014, in New York. Opening night will be held at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, with the rest of the films screening at...
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