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

Approaching Peak Vagina: Lena Dunham and Amy Poehler Score Rare Female Double Emmy Writing Nominations

Television

The Emmy nominations were released yesterday. There is a lot of good news to recognize most especially the fact that two women -- Lean Dunham and Amy Poehler -- were nominated for their comedy writing. According to Nellie at Deadline having two women nominated for comedy writing is a big and not very frequent deal. The last time it happened was a decade ago.

By Melissa Silverstein
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July 20, 2012 11:43 AM
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2 Comments

Video

A really great homage to her whole career on the eve of the Oscar nominations. She willed Albert Nobbs into existence. She is the star, the producer, the co-writer and she also write the lyrics to the song. Pretty impressive.

By Melissa Silverstein
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January 23, 2012 9:45 AM
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0 Comments

Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award Winners

EDA

EDA ANNUAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Best Film: The Artist
Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Best Screenplay, Original: Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen
Best Screenplay, Adapted: (TIE) The Descendants - Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash; Moneyball - Steven Zallian and Aaron Sorkin
Best Documentary: Buck
Best Animated Film: Rango
Best Actress: Viola Davis as Abileen in The Help
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: (TIE) Janet McTeer as Hubert Page in Albert Nobbs; Octavia Spencer as Minny Jackson in The Help
Best Actor: Michael Fassbender as Brandon Sullivan in Shame
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Christopher Plummer as Hal Fields in Beginners
Best Ensemble Cast: Bridesmaids
Best Editing: Hugo - Thelma Schoonmaker
Best Cinematography: The Tree of Life - Emmanuel Lubezki
Best Film Music Or Score: (TIE) The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Original Score; Hanna - The Chemical Brothers, Original Score
Best Non-English-Language Film: A Separation - Ashgar Farhadi, Iran

By Melissa Silverstein
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January 11, 2012 9:42 AM
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0 Comments

I love the diversity of categories. But where is the best woman director? UPDATE- the best womena director is the director of the best movie by women. I think we name the women because people need to know their names in the same way that guys names are known.

BEST MOVIE BY A WOMAN: TIE*
   The Iron Lady - Phyllida Lloyd
   We Need To Talk About Kevin - Lynne Ramsay

   BEST MOVIE ABOUT WOMEN:
   The Help

BEST STORYTELLER:
   The Iron Lady: Abi Morgan

   BEST ACTRESS:
   Viola Davis: The Help

By Melissa Silverstein
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December 21, 2011 10:30 AM
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4 Comments

I like the Golden Globe show cause it's always goofy. People drink, say funny stuff and you get TV and film people in one place. People who are awards watchers don't take it too seriously because they have two different film categories -- comedy and drama -- which no other awards do. The also kiss a lot of celebrity butt in order to have a star ladened show rather than a serious awards show. So you must not take anything these people do too seriously.

But they do get coverage and they do get talked about so it matters that with 11 films nominated in the two categories there is not a single woman directed film nominated for best drama or best comedy/musical. The Help and Bridesmaids continued their good week and I think that we will have to settle for one (The Help) or hopefully both of these films representing the chicks at the Oscars. So it will be films about women that will represent women, not films by women. But weirdly, the Bridesmaids writers did not get nominated here, nor did any other female film writers (except for Angelina Jolie who got a best foreign language film nomination).

By Melissa Silverstein
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December 16, 2011 9:49 AM
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1 Comment

Brigitte Lacombe

Yesterday, the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild nominations were announced. Both The Help and Bridesmaids scored best ensembles nominations (which is their top award) which could be an indicator of potential Oscar love because the actors (a percentage of the SAG members pick these nominees) are the largest voting branch in the Academy. The Help actually scored the most nominations with four including both Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain in the supporting category.

Maybe being a movie about women won't hurt The Help, and the Bridesmaids nod along with the rising Melissa McCarthy makes me think it could potentially sneak in with a best picture nod because both men and women really love this movie. (As they should.)

By Melissa Silverstein
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December 15, 2011 9:29 AM
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0 Comments

Blogs

Check out this audio interview I did with Scott Feinberg - Oscar analyst at the Hollywood Reporter. We talked about the Oscar race with a feminist slant. I really enjoyed the conversation.

By Melissa Silverstein
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December 9, 2011 11:56 AM
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0 Comments

Blogs

Here is a look at some of the women we will be talking about for the next several months.

By Melissa Silverstein
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November 10, 2011 9:47 AM
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1 Comment

Trailer Watch: Albert Nobbs

By Melissa Silverstein
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October 13, 2011 1:46 AM
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0 Comments

TIFF- Albert Nobbs

It was so great to see Glenn Close back on the big screen in Albert Nobbs. It's been too long. She, like many other actresses of her generation, have found TV to be the place where she can play richer characters than in film.

By Melissa Silverstein
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September 12, 2011 1:45 AM
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0 Comments

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