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

Guest Post: Time For A Major Women's Film Award Initiative?

Features

As the awards season gets under way each year I look for the women who are nominated and most years I’m disappointed – the only award category where it is certain that a woman will be nominated is best actress. Why is there a category for actors who are women but not for writers or directors who are women? Why do actors who are women seem happy to have their own category, when screenwriters and directors who are women reject the idea of categories like best screenplay by a woman or best woman director?

By Marian Evans
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November 8, 2012 1:00 PM
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1 Comment

Blogs

Here's my thing about the Oscars. There were women everywhere. We can't stop talking about the great dresses. Women were also there as great presenters (like the crew from Bridesmaids and Emma Stone) YET at the same time it felt like there were no women there. Because really, hardly any women won anything significant on Sunday night.

By Melissa Silverstein
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February 28, 2012 12:00 PM
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21 Comments

Awards

We all know that only one woman -- Kathryn Bigelow (and it has been a long time since we uttered her name) -- has won the best director honors. But there have been other women acknowledged for their films in the best foreign language category. Marleen Gorris won for Antonia's Line. Caroline Link won for Nowhere in Africa. And just last year Susanne Bier won for In a Better World.

By Melissa Silverstein
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January 19, 2012 9:45 AM
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0 Comments

Final List for Foreign Films Being Submitted for Oscar Consideration

63 films have made it onto the list to be considered for the 2012 Academy Awards.

By Melissa Silverstein
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October 14, 2011 2:42 AM
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0 Comments

Interview with Agnieszka Holland - Director of In Darkness

I was able to interview the Academy Award winning director (Europa Europa) Agnieszka Holland in Toronto at the debut of her new film about the Holocaust, In Darkness. In Darkness is Poland's entry to the Academy Award for foreign language picture.

By Melissa Silverstein
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September 28, 2011 4:10 AM
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2 Comments

Good News: Many Films Directed by Women are Being Submitted for Academy Awards for Foreign Films

Something good is going on this year and I've been watching it for the last couple of weeks. The news is that many countries have submitted films directed by women for Academy Award consideration for best foreign film. Only two women -- both Europeans -- have won the foreign film Oscar, one was just last year, Susanne Bier for In a Different World and the other was Agnieszka Holland for Europa Europa. Last year a total of eight films directed by women were submitted.

By Melissa Silverstein
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September 22, 2011 2:01 AM
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2 Comments

TIFF: Wuthering Heights Directed by Andrea Arnold and In Darkness Directed by Agnieszka Holland

There is no denying that Andrea Arnold is one of the most interesting and provocative directors working today. If you haven't seen her first two films Red Road and Fish Tank you have missed two very good films. Her third Wuthering Heights premiered last week at the Venice Film Festival to very good notices. I caught it yesterday in Toronto and was surprisingly left underwhelmed.

By Melissa Silverstein
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September 12, 2011 2:48 AM
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1 Comment