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

Tribeca Film: Wadjda - Written and Directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour

Reviews

What Wadjda (Waad Mohammed) wants to do is simple - ride a bike. That shouldn't be so difficult, but when you live in Saudia Arabia, a place where women can't drive, a girl riding a bike in the street is not allowed

By Melissa Silverstein
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April 26, 2013 2:00 PM
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News

This year’s Tribeca Film Festival announcement is fantastic for both films directed by women and written by. The festival, in its 12th year, will be hosted in locations around New York City from April 17-28.

By Melissa Silverstein
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March 8, 2013 10:30 AM
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0 Comments

News

By Kerensa Cadenas
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December 10, 2012 3:21 PM
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Video

As we previously reported, Haifaa Al-Mansour's Wadjda (the first woman from Saudi Arabia to direct a feature) was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics. Wadjda follows a 10 year old girl, who challenges Saudi traditions in order to get what she really wants--a bike. It will be released in 2013.

By Kerensa Cadenas
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October 2, 2012 10:02 AM
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News

While the whirlwind of the Toronto International Film Festival is now behind us, the deals from TIFF are continuing. Over the weekend, many women-created, women-focused films were picked up by major distributors.

By Kerensa Cadenas
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September 18, 2012 1:54 PM
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1 Comment

News

The news on the prevalence of women directors coming out out of the Venice Film Festival is in stark contrast to the different conversation that came out of Cannes just several months ago. Festival director Alberto Barbera claims that they just programed the movies and then afterwards realized that about 30% of the movies they picked were directed by women. Here's what he said: