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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Athena Co-Chair Diablo Cody Helps Kicks Off The Athena Film Festival Tonight

Festivals

As we here at Women and Hollywood gear up for the Athena Film Festival starting tonight at Barnard College, we are so excited and thankful for the press that has been circulating about the festival. Co-chair of this year’s festival, Diablo Cody, has been speaking about the festival in a bevy of excellent interviews.

By Melissa Silverstein and Kerensa Cadenas
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February 7, 2013 2:00 PM
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1 Comment

News

There has been a ton of women centric TV news, some of which we haven't had the chance to cover. Here's a round up of some recent women in TV news.

By Kerensa Cadenas
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November 21, 2012 10:07 AM
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Blogs

Most of you dear loyal readers and friends know that I am the artistic director of the Athena Film Festival at Barnard College. It is something very near and dear to my heart and keeps me quite busy this time of the year. The second annual festival will take place from February 9-12.

By Melissa Silverstein
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January 10, 2012 12:19 PM
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Awards

It seems that women's orginal work is being recognized this year by the WGA with two out of the five slots for original screenplay taken by women. Diablo Cody was nominated for Young Adult and Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo got a nod for Bridesmaids.

By Melissa Silverstein
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January 6, 2012 11:16 AM
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Happy new year everyone. Thanks so much for the great support over the last year.

As we start the new year, I thought it would be interesting to look at the narratives that dominated the conversation over the past year. Would love to hear if you have any thoughts on other topics that dominated the conversations.

Here is what I came up with:

The success of Bridesmaids and the realization that women can be funny. (duh)

Winter's Bone and The Kids are All Right get best picture nominations for 2011.

Women directors not being in the conversation for the 2012 Oscar.

The breakout success of Jessica Chastain

The Help polarizes yet still succeeds at the box office.

Patty Jenkins gets hired and fired from Marvel's Thor 2.

Women make up only 33% of speaking parts in films and less than 10% of writers and directors.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson becomes the highest grossing women director with King Fu Panda 2.

By Melissa Silverstein
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January 3, 2012 9:27 AM
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Reviews

I heart Young Adult. I heart it because it is an awesome and original story. I heart it because Charlize Theron hits it out of the park as the horribly bitchy Mavis a woman stuck in her high school self because that was when she was queen. You know when you look at the male football players in high school and they are so cute and so dumb but they rule the world because it is high school. But you know that those are the same guys who wind up selling vacuum cleaners and developing a beer gut by the time they are 30. The guys you were in awe of become the sad ones. Mavis is one of those guys, but she is a girl. She peaked at 16. She was the golden mean bitch who I'm sure roamed the halls spilling slushees on the plebes.

By Melissa Silverstein
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December 9, 2011 12:39 PM
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4 Comments

Diablo Cody

Diablo Cody was kindly able to take a few minutes to talk Young Adult and feminism in the film business on the eve of the opening of her new film. It's good to know that we have a strong feminist voice out there unafraid to own up to her convictions.

Women and Hollywood: One of the narratives of the film is that you created an unlikeable female character. We see unlikeable men all the time. Why is such a big deal that we have a female lead who is unlikeable?

Diablo Cody: The conventional knowledge in Hollywood is that an unsympathetic female character can tank a movie. I’m hoping that’s not true. I’m knocking on wood really emphatically right now but honestly I have a lot of theories sometimes I wonder if it comes down to mommy issues. The idea of a cold, unlikeable woman or a woman who is not in control of herself is genuinely frightening to people because it threatens civilization itself or threatens the American family.

But I don’t know why people are always willing to accept and even like flawed male characters. We’ve seen so many loveable anti-heroes who are curmudgeons or addicts or bad fathers and a lot of those characters have become beloved icons and I don’t see women allowed to play the same parts. So it was really important to me to try and turn that around.

By Melissa Silverstein
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December 9, 2011 10:16 AM
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1 Comment

Dirty Trailer for Young Adult - written by Diablo Cody

If you think you knew what Young Adult was about, this will throw a wrench in those thoughts. Just please don't play this around the kids - it's good and dirty.

Film opens in NY and LA Dec 9 and then rolls out across the country.

By Melissa Silverstein
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November 29, 2011 10:31 AM
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For those of you who don't know, I am the artistic director and co-founder of the awesome (if I do say so myself) Athena Film Festival. We will launch year two on February 9. We will be announcing the awardees and the films over the next two months.

The fact that we are going into year two is news in itself. In this difficult economic times raising money and support for a film festival about women's leadership is challenging. I am so proud to be working with a great community of people at Barnard College -- especially my co-founder Kitty Kolbert and the college's President Debora Spar -- who believe in this effort.