NYWIFT Blog

#TBT Flix Not to Miss: ‘The Gleaners & I’ (2000) by Agnes Varda

The Gleaners, an oil painting by Jean-François Millet. In her documentary The Gleaners & I (2000), Agnes Varda’s point-of-departure is a 1857 painting by Jean-Francois Millet portraying three women gleaning the fields. The painting, hanging in the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, is captured in the film through crowds of onlookers. While in his painting Millet sought to give a voice to...

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Road 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...

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Terry’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...

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Lee 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...

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Terry’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...

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Weekly 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...

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Women’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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Terry’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...

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Sign Up for NYWIFT’s October Events: HIFF, Pitch Fest, VintAge & More

Reaching the “Right” People in Your Creative Career with Joanne Zippel Thursday, October 9, 6:30 pm It can be hard to find and connect with the “right” people to move your career forward. At this hands-on seminar, career coach Joanne Zippel will share powerful techniques that will connect you to the people who are right...

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Weekly Roundup: Fast-Talk, Facebook & an All-Female Sports Show

//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/456300878?et=rYxLIuy7SC9DdSt-oocWdg&sig=vzPpcyxoWIl9YZjbXGC_gH0qLfUEHtzRjkdpcCVd_DI= Funny, rapid-tongued Katie Lowes explains how to talk like a Gladiator. Mega-producers Alison Owen and Debra Hayward launch a “Monumental” new production company. Don’t unfriend anyone yet—Facebook and vampires may be the best thing for aspiring female directors. These practical screenwriting tips may help you find time to write. Despite its awful name, CBS’s new all-female sports show starts strong!...

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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...

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Making of a PSA: Interviews with Production & Costume Designer Deborah Zawol Smyth and Makeup Artist Jennifer Snowdon

Taliyah Whitaker as the 1980s talk show host getting last-minute touchups from Makeup Artist Jennifer Snowdon on the set of Little Leading Ladies. Photo courtesy of Amanda Lin Costa/Instagram. This is the fourth installment of a five-part series co-presented by New York Women in Film & Television and Adorama Rentals. NYWIFT member Susan Modaress interviews...

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Making of a PSA: Interview with Casting Director Jessica Daniels

Casting Director Jessica Daniels (right) and Casting Associate Candice Alustiza-Lee (left) at the Little Leading Ladies casting session. Image courtesy of Adorama Rentals. This is the second installment of a five-part series co-presented by New York Women in Film & Television and Adorama Rentals. NYWIFT member Amanda Lin Costa interviews Casting Director Jessica Daniels about her work casting the PSA Little...

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NYWIFT Member Spotlight: Thea Kerman

//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/454706764?et=HN9yoH5sRJpOv1sIX-sjkw&sig=OXpqxwiFeqFocNw0osvb8Xf8rycWxx8qZaLp8ztYJOA= Thea Kerman (second to left), director Afia Nathaniel (second to right), and crew of Dukhtar at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. New York Women in Film and Television member Thea Kerman recently gave an interview to Susan Modaress, another NYWIFT member, about her work in the industry—including as an entertainment lawyer and a film producer.  Why...

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Weekly Roundup: Rosie’s New ‘View’ & Film Schools’ Gender Bias

//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/466306157?et=HSXJJGsBQ-d3O0UBr4NyyA&sig=dFh7E5EG_PMRab3OPJMFfHdxc8YsTLaRguHQCE9hZBU=   Can Rosie O’Donnell  save The View? Gina Sanders becomes Conde Nast’s first President of Global Development. Connie Chung advises women to “sing your praises the way men do!” (Video) Which screenwriting contests are really worth entering? This Is Our Youth star Tavi Gevinson on the perks and pitfalls of adulthood. Gender bias—it starts in film school. — KELLY...

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Drive Your Own Career: Producers of ‘The Kids Menu’ Talk Collaboration

Photo credit: Shane Maritch. A common frustration for many actors is the constant grind of looking for work, auditioning, and then waiting for the phone to ring (or the email to appear). So, ten women and myself decided to take our careers into our own hands and independently produce projects together. Our first collaboration is...

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#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...

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Fey-Seagal Scale: The Truth About Sexism in Film Production

Tina Fey, who New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) honored at its 2005 Muse Awards, is in the news again. This time it’s not a brand-new project or further mention of her nonexistent sequel to Hocus Pocus. Instead, Fey has had a grading scale named after her: the Fey-Seagal Scale. Producer and writer Stephen...

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