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

Catherine Hardwicke to Direct Age of Miracles

News

Catherine Hardwicke has signed on to direct the adaptation of Karen Thompson Walker's bestseller (and one of my favorite books of last year) Age of Miracles.

By Kerensa Cadenas
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April 5, 2013 12:00 PM
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1 Comment

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

Blogs

According to reports in EW, the Playlist and the Hollywood Reporter, the search for a director for Catching Fire is down to two dudes -- Bennett Miller and Francis Lawrence. Now I think that Miller is a great director. I loved Moneyball and Capote. But to pick him to direct Catching Fire when he has NO experience with something of this magnitude is ridiculous. And Lawrence who has experience with CGI and action films is a name not on the tip of anyone's tongue and also doesn't seem right having directed I am Legend and Like Water for Elephants.

By Melissa Silverstein
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April 19, 2012 11:00 AM
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6 Comments

Blogs

So now it is official and Gary Ross has walked away from directing the sequel of Catching Fire because the production schedule was too tight.

By Melissa Silverstein
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April 11, 2012 11:09 AM
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12 Comments

Blogs

Yesterday, the Hollywood Reporter roundtable on directors made me crazy, but it also made me think. While I will give them no leeway on the ridiculous comment asking the directors to name a major movie directed by a woman this past year, I thought it would be good to look at ALL the movies directed by women this year in order to get a decent assessment of where we are going on two years after Kathryn Bigelow won the best director award.

By Melissa Silverstein
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November 18, 2011 10:49 AM
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21 Comments

Reviews

While the first Twilight film was directed by a woman, all subsequent adaptations have had males at the helm. The first adaptation, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, featured a Bella that was stronger than her book counterpart. Alas, the subsequent films have not similarly strengthened Bella’s character, and, in various instances, have made her weaker, clumsier, and even more lovestruck than she is in the books.

By Melissa Silverstein
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November 18, 2011 10:26 AM
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4 Comments