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.

Email Melissa

Purchase In Her Voice

Blog Roll

Bring Shola Lynch's Free Angela & All Political Prisoners to Your Local Theater

News

Shola Lynch's Free Angela & All Political Prisoners focuses on the remarkable life of the incomparable Angela Davis, a professor, a member of the Communist party and influential social activist who worked with the Black Panthers.

By Melissa Silverstein and Kerensa Cadenas
|
March 27, 2013 11:15 AM
|
0 Comments

Interviews

On the day of the premiere of her documentary at the Toronto Film Festival, director Shola Lynch answered some questions about the film. Here is a look at the importance of the film - Black Power Takes Center Stage at the Toronto Film Festival.

By Melissa Silverstein
|
September 24, 2012 9:46 AM
|
0 Comments

News

Sunday, a bit of history was explored here in Toronto. The festival premiered Shola Lynch's documentary Free Angela and All Political Prisoners in one of its gala slots. For a festival that premieres big Hollywood movies and epic films nightly (especially the first weekend) seeing a documentary about a black woman activist in one of the high profile slots is amazing. The red carpet hosted African American celebrities including Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith and both their kids. Jada Pinkett Smith is one of the investors in this film. She is doing this because she believes this is a woman whose story her daughter and other girls should know.

By Melissa Silverstein
|
September 11, 2012 12:30 PM
|
0 Comments

News

Greetings from the Toronto Film Festival. I touched down on Thursday afternoon and since that moment this has been a serious whirlwind. Since it is my second year I understand is the key is pace and endurance. You have to sprint through the first weekend when everyone in the industry is in town for the big premieres and there are many parties and events to attend. I have gone non-stop for over three days and haven't had a moment to write anything.

By Melissa Silverstein
|
September 10, 2012 9:14 AM
|
0 Comments

Video

By Kerensa Cadenas
|
September 6, 2012 10:22 AM
|
0 Comments

Festivals

The Toronto Film Festival launches tomorrow and there are women directors all over the lineup. We reached out to a couple of directors whose careers are on the way up (we will have some of our masters for you tomorrow) and asked them to answer a couple of questions as the Festival kicks off. I will try and see as many films as possible over the 8 days in Toronto. Please follow me on twitter @melsil and/or follow Women and Hollywood on Facebook for updates throughout the day.

By Melissa Silverstein and Kerensa Cadenas
|
September 5, 2012 2:00 PM
|
0 Comments

News

Unlike the folks at Cannes, Toronto seems to understand that there are many great women directors, making films that can play at the highest level and this year is no different.

By Melissa Silverstein
|
July 24, 2012 1:15 PM
|
3 Comments