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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Women and Hollywood

The Backlash Continues: Women Onscreen Falls to a Five Year Low

Make no mistake about it, no matter what you read or what people try and make you believe, things are not all roses and candy for women onscreen or behind the scenes in hollywood.
  • By Melissa Silverstein
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  • May 14, 2013 11:36 AM
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  • 3 Comments

Three Women-Centric Films Opening on August 16th

If you survive the summer of male centric super hero and action films, mark your calendars for August 16th because three women-centric films will be opening. While August has been in the past seen as Meryl Streep's time of the year, this year August Osage County will open in the fall. 
  • By Melissa Silverstein and Kerensa Cadenas
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  • May 8, 2013 1:00 PM
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  • 0 Comments

Quote of the Day from CinemaCon

CinemaCon is underway in Las Vegas.  It is the annual event where the theatre owners are presented with the blockbusters that they will be showing in their theatres this summer.  
  • By Melissa Silverstein
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  • April 17, 2013 12:30 PM
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  • 0 Comments

MPAA Releases Ticket Stats And Contrary to What Hollywood Wants Us To Believe, Women Do Go To The Movies

It's the time of the year when the MPAA (the lobbying group from Hollywood) releases their annual stats.  Since Hollywood films are so skewed towards the young boys I always think the stats are going to come out and give me an understanding as to why women consistently are dismissed as an audience.  But the numbers just prove what we all know, that women do go to the movies  
  • By Melissa Silverstein
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  • March 25, 2013 2:00 PM
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  • 9 Comments

Films Targeting Women Dominate the Box Office This Weekend

Maybe we can call this a bit of poetic justice but it looks like the big boys are floundering and the girls are on the rise.  This weekend, the female targeted, yet not very feminist, Oz - The Great and Powerful was again number 1 at the box office.  (I haven't seen the movie but here are two pieces about the film.  Why ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’ Is A Major Step Back For Witches and Women and “Oz the Great and Powerful” Rekindles the Notion That Women Are Wicked.)
  • By Melissa Silverstein
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  • March 18, 2013 1:00 PM
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  • 0 Comments

Melissa McCarthy Dominates Weekend Box Office

Sorry Rex Reed—looks like there are many, many people who want to see a Melissa McCarthy starring in a movie.
  • By Kerensa Cadenas
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  • February 11, 2013 11:07 AM
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  • 0 Comments

New York Times Says ‘Female Directors Gain Ground, Slowly.’ Should We Wait That Long?

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

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 Crushes the Box Office

Unsurprisingly, Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 killed it at the box office this weekend.
  • By Kerensa Cadenas
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  • November 19, 2012 3:32 PM
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  • 1 Comment

The Summers of Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep can’t do much wrong in our book. Her newest film, Hope Springs, opened this past weekend on over 2,000 screens. A film that cost $30 million to make has now made over $20 million since its release. And it has garnered rave reviews for both Streep and Tommy Lee Jones.
  • By Kerensa Cadenas
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  • August 16, 2012 9:42 AM
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  • 1 Comment

Scarlett Johansson To Be Highest Paid Actress for The Avengers 2

Scarlett Johansson is set to be the highest paid actress in Hollywood.
  • By Kerensa Cadenas
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  • July 17, 2012 12:30 PM
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  • 4 Comments

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