Women and Hollywood

Melissa Silverstein is the founder and editor of Women and Hollywood, one of the most respected sites for issues related to women and film as well as other areas of pop culture. Women and Hollywood educates, advocates, and agitates for gender parity across the entertainment industry.

She is also the co-founder and Artistic Director of The Athena Film Festival. The 4th annual festival will take place from February 6-9, 2014 at Barnard College in NYC.

Melissa recently published the first book from Women and Hollywood, In Her Voice: Women Directors Talk Directing, which is a compilation of over 40 interviews that have appeared on the site.

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Blog Roll

Trailer Watch: Friends With Kids Written and Directed by Jennifer Westfeldt

Video

By Melissa Silverstein
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January 13, 2012 11:00 AM
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2 Comments

Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award Winners

EDA

EDA ANNUAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Best Film: The Artist
Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Best Screenplay, Original: Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen
Best Screenplay, Adapted: (TIE) The Descendants - Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash; Moneyball - Steven Zallian and Aaron Sorkin
Best Documentary: Buck
Best Animated Film: Rango
Best Actress: Viola Davis as Abileen in The Help
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: (TIE) Janet McTeer as Hubert Page in Albert Nobbs; Octavia Spencer as Minny Jackson in The Help
Best Actor: Michael Fassbender as Brandon Sullivan in Shame
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Christopher Plummer as Hal Fields in Beginners
Best Ensemble Cast: Bridesmaids
Best Editing: Hugo - Thelma Schoonmaker
Best Cinematography: The Tree of Life - Emmanuel Lubezki
Best Film Music Or Score: (TIE) The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Original Score; Hanna - The Chemical Brothers, Original Score
Best Non-English-Language Film: A Separation - Ashgar Farhadi, Iran

By Melissa Silverstein
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January 11, 2012 9:42 AM
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0 Comments

Blogs

A couple of things to talk about on the Melissa McCarthy front.

By Melissa Silverstein
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January 10, 2012 11:29 AM
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6 Comments

Awards

It seems that women's orginal work is being recognized this year by the WGA with two out of the five slots for original screenplay taken by women. Diablo Cody was nominated for Young Adult and Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo got a nod for Bridesmaids.

By Melissa Silverstein
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January 6, 2012 11:16 AM
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0 Comments

Blogs

The Hollywood Reporter released a story yesterday saying that Universal was planning on moving ahead with a Bridemaids sequel but that star/co-writer Kristen Wiig as well as co-writer Annie Mumolo are not interested in being a part of it.

By Melissa Silverstein
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January 5, 2012 12:30 PM
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2 Comments

I like the Golden Globe show cause it's always goofy. People drink, say funny stuff and you get TV and film people in one place. People who are awards watchers don't take it too seriously because they have two different film categories -- comedy and drama -- which no other awards do. The also kiss a lot of celebrity butt in order to have a star ladened show rather than a serious awards show. So you must not take anything these people do too seriously.

But they do get coverage and they do get talked about so it matters that with 11 films nominated in the two categories there is not a single woman directed film nominated for best drama or best comedy/musical. The Help and Bridesmaids continued their good week and I think that we will have to settle for one (The Help) or hopefully both of these films representing the chicks at the Oscars. So it will be films about women that will represent women, not films by women. But weirdly, the Bridesmaids writers did not get nominated here, nor did any other female film writers (except for Angelina Jolie who got a best foreign language film nomination).

By Melissa Silverstein
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December 16, 2011 9:49 AM
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1 Comment

Awards

This list reminds me that even though they have been upteen articles about how women are making great strides, there is still such a long way to go, because as I look at the lists I notice that there are very few female directors and creators.

By Melissa Silverstein
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December 12, 2011 10:29 AM
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0 Comments

One of the threads running through this year’s Oscar race is the single father who must pull things together for the sake of his kids. This is especially poignant in three films – Moneyball, The Descendants and We Bought a Zoo. It’s even funnier that it happens to be George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, the Oceans gang, but also the Sexiest Men Alive troika. Remember how Clooney and Pitt were campaigning for Damon?

Another thing they have in common, other than caring for their children – all three have daughters, only Damon has a son — is that they cry. Both The Descendants and We Bought a Zoo, those tears are brought on by their personal relationship. In Moneyball, the tears are more about happiness, disbelieving happiness that things worked out, for once, in Billy Beane’s life. Of all three of these characters, only Brad Pitt’s Billy Beane is digging himself out of failure. Clooney and Damon have suffered blows — leaving them to raise their children alone. But Pitt isn’t raising a child so much as he’s trying to, finally, making something of himself.

Women don’t figure in much to any of these three odes to fatherhood. They only figure in as influences, forces to be reckoned with, but they are gone. The men are left to fend for themselves. This year’s Oscar race is not really about women. Only one film, The Help, is about women. And thus, it stands in stark contrast to the themes offered up in the Best Picture race thus far.

By Sasha Stone
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November 28, 2011 11:33 AM
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4 Comments

The folks from Coming Soon have posted some first photos from Imogene the new comedy starring Kristen Wiig and Annette Bening. Here's the description from imdb:

A playwright stages a suicide in an attempt to win back her ex, only to wind up in the custody of her gambling-addict mother.

But the description from Coming Soon makes it seem like another bridal comedy with Wiig trying to get her boyfriend to marry her. Here's their description:

By Melissa Silverstein
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November 15, 2011 11:34 AM
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4 Comments

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