“Holding Two Truths at Once”: A Conversation with Lauren Melinda on “Before You” and the Mission of Simbelle Productions
In the wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (June 2022) decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, Lauren Melinda’s “Before You” emerges as an intimate, unflinching, and profoundly human film. Drawing from her own experience, Melinda tells a story of love, loss, and the complexities of women’s health with both cinematic elegance and […]
FYC: Cinema Femme speaks with filmmaker Mateusz Balcerek and producer Pinar Binay about their short film “Sunflower”
I got the opportunity to speak with the director Mateusz Balcerek and producer Pinar Binay about their live action short film “Sunflower,” which is now in the competition for an Oscar nomination. Learn more about the film by visiting https://soundsbetter.co/sunflower-short, and follow them on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunflower_themovie/. The film is a personal one, as it is based on the […]
Writer/director Elvira Lind on Her Oscar-Nominated Short Film, “The Letter Room”
One of the joys of covering the movie beat is seeing a great artist whose work you believe in receive the recognition they deserve. When the 2021 Oscar nominations were announced on March 15th, I jumped out of my chair and cheered when Elvira Lind’s “The Letter Room” was named among the nominees for Best […]
Nomadland directed by Chloé Zhao win 6 Oscar nominations
With the Oscar nominations announced this morning in the wake of the Golden Globes, Critics Choice, and BAFTA announcements, we had our eyes on the director category for the hope of 3+ nominations for women. Two women, Chloé Zhao and Emerald Fennell, were nominated this morning, and we couldn’t help but notice the obvious snub, […]
Chloé Zhao becomes the second woman to win a Golden Globe for Best Director with “Nomadland”
Film director Chloé Zhao made history Sunday night after winning the Golden Globe for Best Director for her film “Nomadland,” becoming the second woman to win the award and the first Asian female director to win it. Barbra Streisand was the first woman to win the Golden Globe in 1984 for “Yentl”. “I wanna thank […]
Look Back: Breaking down walls and redesigning them: Production Design Oscar winner Hannah Beachler talks Wakanda, ‘Moonlight’, and more
Featured back in October 2019. We aren’t just taking down ceilings, we are busting down walls. Because you take out a ceiling and the building will stand, but if you take out the wall, it will fall. My whole thing is take out the wall and redesign the building. That’s what I’m trying to do. […]
“Stand and Deliver”, “Thirteen”, “Down in the Delta” editor Nancy Richardson shares her stories from the cutting room
Header photo: Directing Fellow Kibwe Tavares meets with Creative Advisor, editor Nancy Richardson, about his project “The Kitchen.”© 2016 Sundance Institute, Photograph By Brandon Cruz Feature film editor Nancy Richardson has been a professor and head of post-production at UCLA TFT [Theater, Film, and Television] for 19 years. She began her career with the 1988 […]
Producer Amy Hobby busts down walls for female filmmakers as Executive Director of the Tribeca Film Institute
Amy Hobby is a part of the group in the film industry I like to call “the changemakers”. These are the people in the film industry who use their platforms to bring more opportunities to female filmmakers and people of color. Like Hannah Beachler said in my interview with her in October 2019: “We aren’t […]
‘Be Kind Rewind’ YouTube series host Izzy digs deep into the Oscars
Izzy debuted her first “Be Kind Rewind” video in 2018 and has amassed 116k subscribers since then. Her video series on YouTube explores the struggles and triumphs of Hollywood’s leading ladies with non-sensationalized narratives that erase tabloid exploitation and reveal how women and other marginalized groups have navigated the entertainment industry. Before I go into […]
If you don’t remember history, you’re condemned to repeat it: Filmmaker Lauren Greenfield on her doc ‘The Kingmaker’
I had the pleasure of speaking with Lauren Greenfield, the filmmaker who directed “The Queen of Versailles” (2012) and “Generation Wealth” (2018) about her latest documentary, “The Kingmaker,” during the The Chicago International Film Festival. She has spent most of her career exploring the idea of wealth and the truth behind it. In “The Kingmaker”, […]