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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What Are the Greatest Movies Directed by Women?

Features

Fueled by the anger of another best of list sorely lacking in women, I would like to put forward the following films (which came from people all over the world through twitter and facebook) for the distinction of the best or greatest films directed by women.

By Melissa Silverstein
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August 3, 2012 12:00 PM
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88 Comments

Top L-R: Lynne Ramsay, Larysa Kondracki, Susanne Bier; Bottom L-R: Dee Rees, Angelina Jolie, Celine Sciamma

It goes without saying that women made all kinds of films this year. But the reality is that most made indie films. Only a couple made studio films. And the numbers of women directing films is still abysmally low.

But even in their small numbers women are making waves. Here are some highlights:

Jennifer Yuh Nelson made a hugely successful animated film Kung Fu Panda 2 and now she is the highest grossing female director taking the title from Phyllida Lloyd who this year gave us Meryl Streep's tour de force in The Iron Lady.

Several actresses went behind the camera for the first time including Vera Farmiga (Higher Ground) and Angelina Jolie (In the Land of Blood and Honey). Jodie Foster made The Beaver which unfortunately was stuck with the Mel Gibson whose baggage dragged down a very interesting film.

By Melissa Silverstein
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December 26, 2011 11:59 AM
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11 Comments

Women and Hollywood: How did you come up with this story?

Celine Sciamma: I had the storyline in mind for a while, as a pitch: "a little girl pretending to be a little boy". When I decided I wanted to make a second film I was looking for a very simple and catchy story, that I could write and direct very fast. I wanted to make a movie in a crazy energy, as free as possible. I thought that story would be perfect, because it's about childhood, the rush of emotions, the energy. I knew the story would benefit from the dynamic of production I was longing for. I wrote it in 3 weeks, shot it in 20 days two months later.

By Melissa Silverstein
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November 15, 2011 12:13 PM
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1 Comment