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Read our most recent issue with stories that validate, inspire, and change the way we see— and make — film.
As a variation on our Female Filmmaker Friday articles, our contributor Matt Fagerholm is offering his thoughts on three new...
When I first watched “Go Fish,” Rose Troche’s 1994 film, it was in the middle of lockdown during 2020. I...
When I sat down with director Nora Kirkpatrick, she described her latest feature, “Couples Weekend,” as “The Breakfast Club for...
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.
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
3 min read
by Rebecca Martin
May 20, 2026
When I sat down with director Nora Kirkpatrick, she described her latest feature, “Couples Weekend,” as “The Breakfast Club for adults.” It’s a comparison she credits to actor Josh Gad,
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
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
6 min read
by Davide Abbatescianni
May 16, 2026
Franco-Costa Rican filmmaker Valentina Maurel returns to Cannes with “Forever Your Maternal Animal,” premiering in Un Certain Regard four years after her Critics’ Week-bound debut “I Have Electric Dreams.” Set
12 min read
by Rebecca Martin
May 15, 2026
Kate Cragg’s filmmaking begins with a refusal: a rejection of the “proper way” of doing things. Where conventional cinema prizes structure, coverage, and clarity, Cragg has built a practice grounded
10 min read
by Rebecca Martin
May 8, 2026
In “Magic Hour,” filmmaker and actor Katie Aselton returns to the intimate, emotionally raw storytelling that first defined her career. Premiering last year at the South by Southwest film festival,
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
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
5 min read
by Pamela Powell
December 3, 2019
20 min read
by Rebecca Martin
November 25, 2019
Andi Morrow, such a genuine artistic soul. Loved our conversation, and loved her film “Pusher”. She educated me through our conversation and film about the “devastating” opioid epidemic that is
6 min read
by cinemafemme
November 22, 2019
Happy Female Filmmaker Friday! This Friday, instead of featuring one filmmaker, we’d like to showcase some of our Cinema Femme voices, which are excerpts from past Cinema Femme filmmaker features.
6 min read
by Rebecca Martin
November 20, 2019
Recently I attended a member event of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, as part of their “See Jane Salon” series, which enables GDIGM CEO Madeline Di Nonno
17 min read
by Rebecca Martin
November 18, 2019
I heard about Ariel Kavoussi through one of our featured filmmakers, Haroula Rose. Not directly, but through socials, I saw they did some collaborative work and had been featured on
22 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
November 15, 2019
It was no surprise that when Chloe Baldwin met me at Chicago’s Bourgeois Pig for her Cinema Femme interview two months ago, her sandwich of choice was the Hamlet. Her
16 min read
by Rebecca Martin
November 13, 2019
There is power in media. A good review, a great interview, getting the right onscreen exposure makes a difference in the trajectory of a film. Hilda Somarriba understands that as
15 min read
by Rebecca Martin
November 8, 2019
When I turned thirty everything changed for me. My boyfriend of three years was not ready to make the kind of commitment I desired and was definitely not ready to
6 min read
by Pamela Powell
November 7, 2019
“Hope” is based upon filmmaker Maria Sødahl’s experiences as a working woman in a blended family whose life is forever changed when her cancer is no longer in remission. Over the
14 min read
by Anna Pattison
November 1, 2025
When a laid-off sex worker falls for a mail carrier in a world frozen by pandemic unknowns, it will take the help of an astrologer, cinema guru, cam model, retired dungeon owner,
14 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
October 25, 2025
With the 61st Chicago International Film Festival nearly in the rearview mirror, there are so many memories from the past several days that I know I will be cherishing for
20 min read
by Veronica Miles
October 10, 2025
In 2019, I crashed the Cannes Film Festival. Well — not really. I went legitimately with a pass I applied for (if you work in the film industry, you usually
11 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
September 30, 2025
“If you can’t play with the language, you are not reinventing the language.” This is what Argentine director Gaspar Noé told me when I interviewed him fifteen years ago about
12 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
July 8, 2025
I was ten years old when Danny DeVito’s euphoric screen adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1988 novel Matilda arrived in theaters. I had read the book so many times that the
14 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
June 24, 2025
As annoyed as I was about Barry Jenkins, one of the greatest filmmakers working today, recently helming a prequel to the worst Disney remake in history, the Oscar-winning director of
41 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
May 23, 2025
It’s difficult to put into words the gratitude I have for Sabrina S. Sutherland. The collaborations she forged with filmmaker David Lynch, particularly over the last decade, have transformed my
15 min read
by Emily Jacobson
May 20, 2025
Hannah Welever is a queer filmmaker based in New York, but her roots are Midwestern. In her newest short, “Soirée,” Welever creatively holds space for women’s bodies, and how often
21 min read
by Anna Pattison
May 1, 2025
Samantha (Sam) Cole returns to her childhood home when her mother suddenly passes. In place of familiar spaces and memories, Sam finds only uneasiness and confusion. Things are missing, the
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
15 min read
by Emily Jacobson
May 20, 2025
Hannah Welever is a queer filmmaker based in New York, but her roots are Midwestern. In her newest short, “Soirée,” Welever creatively holds space for women’s bodies, and how often
21 min read
by Anna Pattison
April 18, 2025
From writer and director Florence Bouvy, “Where We Stay” is a beautiful and touching examination of human connection and unspoken truths. The film was partially inspired by Florence’s own story
4 min read
by Rebecca Martin
January 31, 2026
Barbara Hammer once said, “If we’re experimenting with our lives and the way we’re going to live, our film and our art should also be experimental. It breaks tradition, and
9 min read
by Emily Jacobson
January 30, 2026
When I landed in what would be the last Sundance in Park City, Utah, a notable feeling of gratitude washed over me. My first day was a frenzy of badge
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
7 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
October 21, 2025
The Girl in the Snow One of the great discoveries I made at CIFF ten years ago was the talent of young Galatéa Bellugi. As a pregnant teen in the
3 min read
by cinemafemme
April 11, 2025
BEING MARIA – directed by Jessica Palud “I want to be free as an actor to explore where a scene can go, but if it’s going to be a fight
6 min read
by Peyton Robinson
February 25, 2025
For my final dispatch of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, I’m covering three films that I watched virtually. Ironically, these films, while not all specifically tailoring their plots to location,
8 min read
by Emily Jacobson
February 18, 2025
For my second Sundance dispatch, I exchanged my snow boots for my slippers, and viewed most of the films from the comfort of my couch. While certainly not comparable to
7 min read
by Peyton Robinson
February 18, 2025
The endeavors of love and lust can feel like matters of life and death, but the films which compose this dispatch also find the humor in these escapades. I was
8 min read
by Emily Jacobson
January 31, 2025
When I was thirteen, I remember scrolling through the movie channels of my parents’ television and finding a film called “Like Crazy,” which was labeled as a “breakout Sundance hit.”
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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
When I sat down with director Nora Kirkpatrick, she described her latest feature, “Couples Weekend,” as “The Breakfast Club for adults.” It’s a comparison she
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
“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
Franco-Costa Rican filmmaker Valentina Maurel returns to Cannes with “Forever Your Maternal Animal,” premiering in Un Certain Regard four years after her Critics’ Week-bound debut
Kate Cragg’s filmmaking begins with a refusal: a rejection of the “proper way” of doing things. Where conventional cinema prizes structure, coverage, and clarity, Cragg
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
When I sat down with director Nora Kirkpatrick, she described her latest feature, “Couples Weekend,” as “The Breakfast Club for adults.” It’s a comparison she
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
“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
Franco-Costa Rican filmmaker Valentina Maurel returns to Cannes with “Forever Your Maternal Animal,” premiering in Un Certain Regard four years after her Critics’ Week-bound debut
Kate Cragg’s filmmaking begins with a refusal: a rejection of the “proper way” of doing things. Where conventional cinema prizes structure, coverage, and clarity, Cragg
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
When I sat down with director Nora Kirkpatrick, she described her latest feature, “Couples Weekend,” as “The Breakfast Club for adults.” It’s a comparison she
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
“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
Franco-Costa Rican filmmaker Valentina Maurel returns to Cannes with “Forever Your Maternal Animal,” premiering in Un Certain Regard four years after her Critics’ Week-bound debut
Kate Cragg’s filmmaking begins with a refusal: a rejection of the “proper way” of doing things. Where conventional cinema prizes structure, coverage, and clarity, Cragg
