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

To The Academy: Consider the Women

Blogs

It's that time of year, The Academy Awards, the "Super Bowl for Women." It's the night where we all get catty about whose dress doesn't work, who's got a new boyfriend or girlfriend, and who looks like they haven't eaten all month.

By Melissa Silverstein
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February 23, 2012 10:54 AM
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11 Comments

I just got back from a meeting and broke open the list of indie spirit nominees for 2012 and I am utterly dispirited at the lack of female voices throughout the categories.

I am looking back at the list from last year and two female directed films -- Winter's Bone and The Kids Are All Right -- got multiple nominations.

This year not so much.

A variety of these lists that will be coming at us over the next months and they will be very male centric. If people were under the illusion that this was a good year for female voices, this list is an indicator of how much work needs to be done. This so makes me want to start the female film awards. Who is in?

By Melissa Silverstein
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November 29, 2011 4:41 PM
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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

Interview with Circumstance Writer and Director Maryam Keshavarz

Here's a piece I wrote for this summer's Human Right Campaign Magazine Equality on the film. You can tell from the piece how impressive a film it is. It is a change making film because it tells the most common story about two people in love and throws on a multitude of complex layers including a repressive political environment in such a profound and bold way.

By Melissa Silverstein
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August 26, 2011 12:44 PM
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3 Comments

Love and Risk in Iran: Circumstance Written and Directed by Maryam Keshavarz

Here is a piece I wrote on Circumstance written and directed by Maryam Keshavarz for the Human Right Campaign's Equality Magazine, for their Summer 2011 Issue.

By Melissa Silverstein
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August 23, 2011 4:39 AM
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4 Comments

NewFest Crowns Winners

NewFest wrapped up at the end of last week and female directors got a bunch of surprises.

By Melissa Silverstein
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August 1, 2011 2:30 AM
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1 Comment

Circumstance - Written and Directed by Maryam Keshavarz Closes New Directors/New Films

This evening Maryam Keshavarz' Sundance award winning film will close the New Directors/New Film series in NYC. I spoke with Maryam this week and the full interview will be available when the film opens this summer, but here is a piece in honor of the film's NY premiere. Circumstance will be making its way around the film festival circuit this spring and if it comes to your neighborhood I highly recommend it. The film tells the story of two young women living in Iran trying to live as normal a life as possible under a repressive regime while exploring their feelings for each other.

By Melissa Silverstein
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April 3, 2011 1:46 AM
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1 Comment