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

New York Times Says ‘Female Directors Gain Ground, Slowly.’ Should We Wait That Long?

News

The great Carrie Rickey published a piece in the New York Times this past weekend with the depressing headline ‘Female Directors Gain Ground, Slowly’. The piece reported that in 2012, by their count, women directors hit a recent high of 9% of the 250 top grossing films. That number is up from the 2011 number of 5% reported by Martha Lauzen from the Center for Study of Women in Television at Film at San Diego State. The number is the highest since 2000 when 11% of the top grossing films were directed by women.

By Melissa Silverstein
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January 16, 2013 1:00 PM
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3 Comments

Interviews

Barbra Streisand has not had the lead in a film since The Mirror Has Two Faces (which she directed) in 1996. She's back onscreen as Joyce Brewster, Seth Rogan's mom in the road comedy The Guilt Trip. The biggest challenge for the film is making Barbra look like a regular mom and while I know they tried really hard, Barbra is Barbra and she's not the kind of person who can just disappear. There were times when the interactions between mother and son were painful and not terribly funny, but seeing Barbra attempt to eat a massive steak in a eating contest is a high point. It's also interesting to see her character discover that by getting out of the house and going on the road that her life is not over, and that she can still find love.

By Melissa Silverstein
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December 21, 2012 11:30 AM
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0 Comments

Video

Barbra Streisand co-stars in Anne Fletcher's The Guilt Trip as the mother of Andy (Seth Rogen) who agrees to go on a cross-country road trip with her son. Let's hope that the film is not one long Jewish mother stereotype.

By Kerensa Cadenas
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October 3, 2012 9:03 AM
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1 Comment

News

Newflash. Babs is going to get back behind the camera.

By Melissa Silverstein
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June 22, 2012 11:00 AM
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0 Comments

Blogs

I used to really hate numbers. Now I find numbers empowering. I find them empowering because they make anecdotal evidence a reality. They help us know we are not crazy.

By Melissa Silverstein
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November 23, 2011 9:32 AM
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9 Comments