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.

Email Melissa

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Blog Roll

Friends With Kids - Written and Directed by Jennifer Westfeldt

Reviews

What's interesting about Friends with Kids is that Jennifer Westfeldt has the skills to make a film feel subversive and mainstream at the same time. The story she tells (which she also produces and directs) is about best friends who want a kid even though they haven't found the partners they want to parent with. They decide to parent with each other much to the chagrin of their friends who are going down the conventional road. She asks questions through the different couples about whether the norm is normal, whether you need to find a soul mate to raise a child, what is a soul mate, and whether you stay together for the sake of the kids when you are miserable. She also shows how hard it is to find a mate in NYC.

By Melissa Silverstein
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March 9, 2012 10:25 AM
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1 Comment

Video

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

Laugh Out Loud Bridesmaids Blooper Reel

I loved seeing Jill Clayburgh

By Melissa Silverstein
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September 13, 2011 12:57 PM
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0 Comments

Kristin Wiig and Maya Rudolph and the Homeless Fart

Hysterical interview from the French junket for Bridesmaids. This dude hit the jackpot

By Melissa Silverstein
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June 8, 2011 2:00 AM
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0 Comments

Why Bridesmaids Matters

This feels like another cultural watershed moment for women on screen. A big studio comedy that is about women. We all know the difficulties women in comedy have faced. Gone are the days of Goldie Hawn and Madeline Kahn and Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin. Women who were allowed to be stars and allowed to be funny in movies.

By Melissa Silverstein
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May 9, 2011 3:59 AM
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7 Comments

Trailer Alert: Bridesmaids (The Dirty Version)

2 more weeks until Bridesmaids. I'm going to see it next week and I am psyched. This has potential cross over for male and female audiences. Here's what Russ Fischer said on /Film: "This movie is great. It’s my favorite comedy of the year without any competition at all."

By Melissa Silverstein
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April 27, 2011 1:22 AM
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0 Comments

New Bridesmaids Trailer

This looks even better than the first one.

By Melissa Silverstein
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March 16, 2011 12:40 PM
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0 Comments

More Good News on Bridesmaids

This film is shaping up to be the one of the movies I am most looking forward to seeing this year. Now I know that it is a movie about a wedding, and I have said that I would be perfectly fine with my life never seeing another wedding movie EVER, but this report from Jen Yamato at Cinematical/Moviefone has pretty much sealed the deal for me. And, I watched the trailer again and laughed again.

By Melissa Silverstein
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March 3, 2011 3:42 AM
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2 Comments