Last week I attended the release of an economic study done by Princeton undergrad Emily Glassberg Sands entitled "Opening the Curtain of Playwright Gender: An Integrated Economic Analysis of Discrimination in American Theatre."

Usually an undergraduate thesis does not warrant a couple of hundred people showing up to hear the...

Hannah Free, the new film starring Sharon Gless, written by Claudia Allen (adapted from her play) and directed by Wendy Jo Carlton will premiere on Sunday, June 28 as the closing night film for the Frameline LGBT Film Festival in San Francisco.

The film tells the story of a...

When I was in LA for the Away We Go junket, I was able to interview Maya Rudolph about the film, SNL and a couple of other things:

Women & Hollywood: What was it about this script that spoke to you?

Maya Rudolph: I fell in love...

I knew nothing about Vendela Vida before I spoke with her a couple of weeks ago in conjunction with the release of her first film Away We Go which she co-wrote with husband Dave Eggers. (The film opens Friday and I liked it very much.) I very much enjoyed the...

It's hard to watch Megan Mylan's Oscar winning short film Smile Pinki without having emotions. At the beginning it was sadness, but by the end you can't stop smiling as much a Pinki the young Indian girl whose life is totally changed through the surgery to correct her cleft lip....

I went to see Star Trek last night here in LA on a big screen in Culver City. Personally, I prefer to see the big blockbusters during the week cause I hate the crowds. Everywhere I was yesterday in LA people were talking about the movie. It really is a...

One of the big differences for me between theatre and TV and film is the electricity. There is electricity in a theatre when everything and everyone is crackling. And it's even better when they know it. That's the kind of electricity I felt when I recently saw the revival of...

To say that I am impressed with writer/director Emily Abt is an understatement. I've been a fan of hers since I first saw her documentary All of Us about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in African American women which was released in NY last fall and broadcast on Showtime on World AIDS...

I have pretty much ignored the new Seth Rogen film Observe and Report coming out tomorrow. I saw him on the Daily Show earlier this week and all Jon Stewart talked about was his weight loss, and on SNL last weekend they made fun of the fact that he is...

Most women, including feminists, have a love/hate relationship with the chick flick. A mere mention of the term can send you into a lather bemoaning the disparagement that the entire genre has wrought on womankind. The current offerings are especially troublesome. But this was not always the case.

Back...

The NY Times in a Style section piece yesterday reported this bizarro notion that there are women screenwriters in Hollywood that support and root for each other. Shocking. I first heard about the group last fall during the Toronto Film Festival where the Fempire went and supported Lorene Scafaria at...

Sunshine Cleaning opens today in NY and LA. Those people reading this post who live in NY or LA have a homework assignment this weekend - GO SEE SUNSHINE CLEANING.

Here are the reasons (and me being paid is not one of them):

1- After 10 weeks of pretty crappy...

Patricia Clarkson opens today, March 6 as Miss Dodger in Daniel Barnz' film, Phoebe in Wonderland co-starring with Elle Fanning, Felicity Huffman, Bill Pullman and Campbell Scott. The film opens in the following cities: Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, San Francisco, Washington DC, Chicago, Boston, Miami, Dallas, Philadelphia and Seattle.

So here's the news. Women across the country really wanted to see He's Just Not That Into You even though it got rotten reviews across the board. 80% of the audience was women, and 60% of the audience was over 25. As someone who thinks about women's films and the...

There has been some buzz about the recent piece in the New Yorker featuring Tim Palen, co-head of theatrical marketing at Lion's Gate (one of the only remaining independent studios around). Lion's Gate is an interesting studio of late because their slate of films are so different; from slasher...

Before I started writing about movies I cared a lot more about the Oscar nominations. Now, probably because I spend so much time reading about pop culture and how women are treated, most of the excitement I had when I was just a fan is gone. I used to park...

Cherien Dabis is having one of those dreamlike weeks. She was named one of Variety's 10 Directors to Watch in 2009, and her film Amreeka had its world premiere at Sundance this past weekend to a standing ovation and positive reviews. Now all she needs to do it sell the...

How is it that the British are able to make these lovely, small romances that can be watched over and over every time they are on? Don't tell me you haven't seen Four Weddings and a Funeral or Notting Hill or even Love Actually about 20 times. While all those...

Revolutionary Road is a tough movie for a woman who grew up after the women's movement of the 1970s to watch, but after watching it a couple of times I actually think that it should be required watching for all young women who think that feminism is irrelevant. (Disclaimer, I...

Slumdog Millionaire is the feel good movie of the season. It's generating a lot of good reviews, great word of mouth, award nominations and award wins. Critic and blogger and all around expert on things women and film, Jan Lisa Huttner has raised a question about the directing credits...