WEEKLY ROUNDUP:MOTHER’S DAY MOVIES, LIFETIME OPPORTUNITIES & IT’S NOT “SWOOZY”
From sappy, to scary there’s a new or classic Mother’s Day Movie for everyone! Eye-opening statistics about women during Broadway’s 2014-2015 season. Lifetime announces Broad Focus–an initiative to put more women behind the camera. FOX cancels The Mindy Project but Mindy’s taking it all in stride. Besides, Hulu knows better. A delightful Q&A with Swoosie Kurtz reveals… we’ve...
READ MOREWEEKLY ROUNDUP: WRITING TWEETING, DIRECTING, WINNING.
Meryl Streep funds an important screenwriting lab, NYWIFT will manage the process. What was Lars Von Trier & Thomas Vinterberg’s “Dogme 95″ and how did it impact women directors? The most informative article on effective Twitter usage I’ve read to date. #Awesome Showrunner Nahnatchka Khan discusses Fresh Off the Boat and The B—-. A “throwback” article with director Crystal Moselle about The Wolfpack. These (mostly...
READ MORENYWIFT Members at Sundance Film Festival
From the documentary The Hunting Ground. Members of New York Women in Film and Television have films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, which runs from January 22 to February 1 in Park City, Utah. Here’s a sneak peek: ADVANTAGEOUS Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition Director: Jennifer Phang Screenwriters: Jacqueline Kim, Jennifer Phang Production Designers: Dara Wishingrad (NYWIFT Member), Aiyana...
READ MOREFlix Not to Miss: ‘Making Mr. Right’ (1987) by Susan Seidelman
I always enjoy a good romantic comedy, and Susan Seidelman provides a quirky, offbeat example of the genre with a touch of sci-fi in Making Mr. Right. Comedian Ann Magnuson is terrific as a high-powered image consultant who’s tasked with creating a more human android, played by a young John Malkovich. Unfortunately, she succeeds a little too...
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 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...
READ MORETerry’s Picks: Gloria Steinem on ‘The Good Wife,’ DGA Report on Diversity & ‘She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry’
http://can.cbs.com/thunder/player/chrome/canplayer.swf?pid=y_5KPwXjuz2Z&partner=cbs&gen=1 Loved: Gloria Steinem’s turn on The Good Wife last Sunday. Check it out if you didn’t see it. She continues to inspire. Enough already! The DGA reports that there has been no progress for inclusion of women and people of color in episodic television. Can’t wait to see: She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry, a film...
READ MOREWorld 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
//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/450845374?et=-vV7r2ttTk9c1dgD4Iqw6g&sig=8_KsWASeBMfZH44qTkUlXUZRxUi8LnI84S-UJKNQ1Cg= Looking forward to watching: Oprah’s Master Class: Vanessa Williams, directed by NYWIFT board member Annetta Marion. Premieres this Sunday, July 13, 10 pm on OWN TV. Glad to see: that Thelma & Louise was included in THR’s top 100 films of all time, one of only a handful of female-centric films on the list. No films directed by women...
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...
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