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

Brave Scores $66 Million Opening Weekend

Box Office

By Melissa Silverstein
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June 25, 2012 11:15 AM
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3 Comments

Blogs

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo hasn't opened at the level that Sony would have liked, just $27 million in 6 days of release, (see Thompson on Hollywood analysis of what went wrong) but it goes without saying that the character of Lisbeth Salander has gotten people talking. So much so that Entertainment Weekly has put Rooney Mara on its cover which will hit newstands tomorrow.

By Melissa Silverstein
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December 29, 2011 3:06 PM
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3 Comments

Watching the bleak, intense, colorless, vibrant, taut thriller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo made me elated and sad at the same time. Elated because FINALLY here is a movie with an amazing female lead and a great male lead who are equals as people, and sad because these types of films hardly EVER come along.

David Fincher, a man who is best known for dark, boy oriented thrillers, takes a beloved feminist book (and yes, I think it is a feminist book) and creates this woman onscreen who is one of the most truly original characters I have ever seen. And Rooney Mara. Seriously. That girl hit it out of the park. Her work is at Meryl Streep level in this film. She just disappears into Lisbeth and owns her. And I give David Fincher credit for fighting for Mara because he was right. She's beyond great.

By Melissa Silverstein
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December 20, 2011 10:32 AM
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6 Comments

I for one am psyched to see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (which I will be seeing later today.) But not all women are excited according to a piece last week in Vulture. Sony seems to be nervous that the film is not tracking well among women, which is one of the reasons why they are opening it up a day early because they need to build word of mouth. And remember that this is an R rated movies so the young teenage boys are not the target

The reason why they are nervous is because of the graphic subject matter of the book as well as the ads which are clearly dark and cutting edge. The tag line is the "feel bad" movie of Christmas. Doesn't give you a lot of cheer during the holiday season. I think women can handle cutting edge ads, but if you are targeting women and want them to see the film, especially women who really liked the book because those are the ones who will start your much needed word of mouth, you need to get them in the theatre and not piss them off.

By Melissa Silverstein
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December 19, 2011 12:30 PM
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8 Comments

Awards

This list reminds me that even though they have been upteen articles about how women are making great strides, there is still such a long way to go, because as I look at the lists I notice that there are very few female directors and creators.

By Melissa Silverstein
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December 12, 2011 10:29 AM
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0 Comments

Another Interesting Teaser for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

By Melissa Silverstein
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December 8, 2011 10:41 AM
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0 Comments

Long Trailer for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Prepare yourselves. It is almost here. This wil hopefully hold you for a little while.

By Melissa Silverstein
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December 2, 2011 10:32 AM
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1 Comment

New Commercial for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

This is the commercial I saw on Sunday night during The Good Wife. This one heavily focuses on Lisbeth. Tell me you aren't excited to see this.

hat tip The Playlist

By Melissa Silverstein
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November 15, 2011 9:22 AM
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0 Comments

Quoted in the NY Post Regarding Lisbeth Salander

The Lisbeth Salander roll out continues now with a new clothing line from H&M. Hopefully you don't have to be waif-like to fit into them.

Here's what I had to say about the facination with Lisbeth Salander:

Melissa Silverstein, editor of the blog Women and Hollywood, says Lisbeth is a perfect antidote to the preponderance of imperiled women we see on-screen (see: every female character in this summer’s blockbusters) and an intellectual breath of fresh air. “I think people are tired of seeing the same cookie-cutter women on the screen,” she says.
“This is a character that fights back. She’s smart, and she really doesn’t give a s - - t what people think of her. It’s really refreshing. And she comes from a book that resonated with people all over the world.”
Read More »

By Melissa Silverstein

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November 2, 2011 1:54 AM

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2 Comments

More: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

New Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Poster

These keep getting more interesting. If you are interested keep watch on this site: Mouth-Taped-Shut, it keeps rolling out new marketing elements for the film.

By Melissa Silverstein
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October 25, 2011 2:06 AM
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2 Comments

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