Read our most recent issue with stories that validate, inspire, and change the way we see— and make — film.
It often feels as though queer films fly under the radar, going relatively unnoticed in the grand scheme of yearly...
Cinema Femme Film Festival Announces 2026 Award Winners and Breaking Down Walls Mentorship Recipients Chaz Ebert honors Abby Pierce’s “So...
All That Seeing Allows by Matt Fagerholm Aside from Alex Gibney’s “Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie,” which is...
This is a living record of underrepresented brilliance in film. Dive into our archive of stories and hear from bold voices that paving the industry forward.
3 min read
by cinemafemme
October 16, 2026
Cinema Femme Film Festival Announces 2026 Award Winners and Breaking Down Walls Mentorship Recipients Chaz Ebert honors Abby Pierce’s “So Boom” with the Phenomenal Person in Film Award as the
6 min read
by Rebecca Martin Fagerholm and Matt Fagerholm
October 16, 2026
All That Seeing Allows by Matt Fagerholm Aside from Alex Gibney’s “Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie,” which is slowly making its way around the country in far too
14 min read
by Megan Henderson
October 14, 2026
Director Kasia Adamik is no stranger to the screen, as her career began back in 2002. As a Polish filmmaker and storyboard artist, “Winter of the Crow” is an adaptation
12 min read
by Megan Henderson
October 13, 2026
Coming into your own as a person is hard, and it’s made even harder when you have a crazy family. The people closest to us affect our lives in so
8 min read
by Megan Henderson
October 7, 2026
*This article contains major spoilers for Mike Flanagan’s “Carrie”* Every girl remembers at exactly what age and where she was when she got her first period. At least, I know
14 min read
by Megan Henderson
October 6, 2026
In this day and age, our social media presence is a reflection of ourselves. It’s a highly curated, performative version of what we see in the mirror everyday. Yet still,
14 min read
by Megan Henderson
October 5, 2026
“Avatar: The Last Airbender” is a franchise beloved globally. I first learned about it when I was in high school from one of my best friends, who grew up watching
11 min read
by Megan Henderson
October 4, 2026
Over the past few years, many progressive conversations have been happening in the entertainment industry. We’ve been discussing more opportunities for non-white, non-cis, non-male creatives, behind and in front of
13 min read
by Rebecca Martin
October 2, 2026
Speaking with Rachel Morrison let me check another bucket-list filmmaker off my list. As a cinematographer, she shot some of my favorite films, including “Mudbound” (Dee Rees) and “Fruitvale Station”
14 min read
by Megan Henderson
October 14, 2026
Director Kasia Adamik is no stranger to the screen, as her career began back in 2002. As a Polish filmmaker and storyboard artist, “Winter of the Crow” is an adaptation
12 min read
by Megan Henderson
October 13, 2026
Coming into your own as a person is hard, and it’s made even harder when you have a crazy family. The people closest to us affect our lives in so
14 min read
by Megan Henderson
October 5, 2026
“Avatar: The Last Airbender” is a franchise beloved globally. I first learned about it when I was in high school from one of my best friends, who grew up watching
11 min read
by Megan Henderson
October 4, 2026
Over the past few years, many progressive conversations have been happening in the entertainment industry. We’ve been discussing more opportunities for non-white, non-cis, non-male creatives, behind and in front of
13 min read
by Rebecca Martin
October 2, 2026
Speaking with Rachel Morrison let me check another bucket-list filmmaker off my list. As a cinematographer, she shot some of my favorite films, including “Mudbound” (Dee Rees) and “Fruitvale Station”
9 min read
by Megan Henderson
September 26, 2026
All women are familiar with the complexities that come along with female friendships. On one hand, they can be magical, sparkly, and more valuable than any romantic relationship. But sometimes,
9 min read
by Megan Henderson
September 25, 2026
As a society, we’re familiar with ghost stories. When we turn to supernatural films, the ones filled with poltergeists and phantoms, we typically know what we are getting into. There’s
5 min read
by Rebecca Martin
September 25, 2026
This is a preview piece ahead of the Music Box Theatre screening of “Playing with Fire: An Ecosexual Emergency” on Tuesday, September 29; the full feature interview will follow closer
12 min read
by Megan Henderson
September 24, 2026
Barbara Hammer made over 80 films in her life time, and yet many don’t know her name. She helped shape experimental and queer cinema, and yet most audience members haven’t
14 min read
by Megan Henderson
October 5, 2026
“Avatar: The Last Airbender” is a franchise beloved globally. I first learned about it when I was in high school from one of my best friends, who grew up watching
13 min read
by Rebecca Martin Fagerholm and Matt Fagerholm
August 11, 2026
To celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary last month, my husband Matt and I flew to San Francisco, rented a car and drove all over the state of California, visiting friends
20 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
July 31, 2026
For our fourth wedding anniversary, Cinema Femme founder Rebecca Martin Fagerholm and I spent a week driving to see friends and family all around California. One of our essential stops
5 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
July 13, 2026
When my wife, Cinema Femme founder Rebecca Martin Fagerholm, and I decided to visit California for our fourth wedding anniversary, we knew that one of our destinations would have to
24 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
June 8, 2026
Upending an audience’s expectations has become one of the most joyous experiences to have in a movie theater, especially when so many releases from mainstream studios are content to remain
6 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
May 29, 2026
As a variation on our Femme Filmmaker Friday articles, our contributor Matt Fagerholm is offering his thoughts on three new male-directed films (plus one new female-directed series) all bolstered by
24 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
April 29, 2026
It’s a special kind of thrill when the greatness of an emerging filmmaker’s work hits you like a thunderbolt. That’s precisely what happened to me upon discovering the sublimely nuanced
25 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
April 13, 2026
After seeing Chicago’s BDSM community turn out in huge numbers for a euphoric preview screening of Harry Lighton’s acclaimed movie “Pillion” earlier this year, it’s clear that Madison Young’s equally
22 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
March 13, 2026
As I spent twelve hours in the hospital last week, waiting for my dad to recover from his long-belated knee replacement surgery, I found a liberating mode of escapism in
3 min read
by Megan Henderson
October 2, 2026
“Now when you picture yourself, do you like what you conceive? Honestly, if you could be anyone, but instead you’re you?” – Heaven Above Rowen, 2026 To know one’s true
14 min read
by Rebecca Martin
June 5, 2026
Some films seem to find you when you’re finally ready for them. In 2023, I spoke with filmmaker and writer Guinevere Turner about her memoir, When the World Didn’t End,
8 min read
by Emily Jacobson
May 21, 2026
When I first watched “Go Fish,” Rose Troche’s 1994 film, it was in the middle of lockdown during 2020. I was watching at least three movies a day, using my
9 min read
by Rebecca Martin
May 19, 2026
We are living in a culture right now where we are constantly feeding ourselves, and not only with food. The content constantly competing for our attention on all sizes of
25 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
April 13, 2026
After seeing Chicago’s BDSM community turn out in huge numbers for a euphoric preview screening of Harry Lighton’s acclaimed movie “Pillion” earlier this year, it’s clear that Madison Young’s equally
14 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
March 9, 2026
As someone who was born four decades ago, any fragments of home movie footage that exist from my childhood—most of which was recorded on a cumbersome camcorder borrowed from my
4 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
February 13, 2026
There is no filmmaking duo whose work I await with greater anticipation than Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson. In 2019, Thompson made his debut feature, “Saint Frances,” written by and
16 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
January 28, 2026
Sundance has always been a festival I had admired at a distance. How Robert Redford had gone about using his platform to launch the careers of countless filmmakers for over
14 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
November 4, 2025
I went into David Michôd’s biopic “Christy” knowing nothing about its titular boxer. I knew I would be interviewing the film’s real-life subject, Christy Salters Martin, the following morning, and
6 min read
by Rebecca Martin Fagerholm and Matt Fagerholm
October 16, 2026
All That Seeing Allows by Matt Fagerholm Aside from Alex Gibney’s “Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie,” which is slowly making its way around the country in far too
8 min read
by Megan Henderson
October 7, 2026
*This article contains major spoilers for Mike Flanagan’s “Carrie”* Every girl remembers at exactly what age and where she was when she got her first period. At least, I know
3 min read
by Megan Henderson
October 2, 2026
“Now when you picture yourself, do you like what you conceive? Honestly, if you could be anyone, but instead you’re you?” – Heaven Above Rowen, 2026 To know one’s true
3 min read
by Rebecca Martin
August 3, 2026
As a millennial, my world is framed slightly differently than that of Gen-Z, yet given our current cultural and political climate, it is easy to see exactly where we are
4 min read
by Megan Henderson
July 31, 2026
For some fascinating reason, Gen Z is scared of sex. They don’t want to talk about it, barely want to experience it, and definitely don’t want to see it on
3 min read
by Megan Henderson
July 9, 2026
What makes a family? Is it our blood relatives, assigned to us at birth? Or is it the people we meet along the way and accept as our own kin?
6 min read
by Rebecca Martin Fagerholm and Matt Fagerholm
June 12, 2026
Chicago is buzzing with energy this month as we celebrate the incredible impact of women-led and women-owned businesses in the film community. The Independent Film Exhibition Conference (IND/EX), running June
5 min read
by Rebecca Martin
May 18, 2026
“That’s the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they’re not much to look at, or even if they’re sort of stupid, you fall half in
12 min read
by Rebecca Martin
May 5, 2026
This month’s lineup leans heavily into documentaries, with “The Invite” as the lone outlier. Watching these films, I kept circling back to my own life—each one opening up a different
2 min read
by cinemafemme
September 10, 2026
Dear Readers, Chicago’s film community is full of people who are not only making movies, but actively reshaping the culture, infrastructure, and possibilities of how those movies get made, seen,
2 min read
by Anna Pattison
November 1, 2025
Dear Cinema Femme Readers, Let’s celebrate: our talents, passions, our goals, and dreams. Let’s support: to ensure these dreams are made a reality. Let’s thrive: in spaces where we
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