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Read our most recent issue with stories that validate, inspire, and change the way we see— and make — film.
After seeing Chicago’s BDSM community turn out in huge numbers for a euphoric preview screening of Harry Lighton’s acclaimed movie...
When John Alan Schwartz’s “Faces of Death” came out in 1978, it emerged at a time when the proliferation of...
Submissions Link: filmfreeway.com/CinemaFemme 🎬 Cinema Femme Short Film Festival Returns to the Music Box Theatre and New Festival Director Announced...
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.
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
18 min read
by Zachary Lee
April 11, 2026
When John Alan Schwartz’s “Faces of Death” came out in 1978, it emerged at a time when the proliferation of violent images wasn’t as ubiquitous as it is today. The
4 min read
by cinemafemme
April 6, 2026
Submissions Link: filmfreeway.com/CinemaFemme 🎬 Cinema Femme Short Film Festival Returns to the Music Box Theatre and New Festival Director Announced Cinema Femme Short Film Festival Announces 2026 Dates, Opens Film
5 min read
by Rebecca Martin
April 1, 2026
Emmy-winning filmmaker Stephanie Laing has built a career on finding humanity in unlikely places—whether through the biting satire of Veep or the emotionally layered storytelling of Physical. Now, with her
7 min read
by Emily Jacobson
March 20, 2026
About a year ago, I sat down for what was probably my sixth movie of the day at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. My eyes were burning, my brain was
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
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
9 min read
by Rebecca Martin
March 8, 2026
For me, movies and meaning are inseparable; I process my daily life through this art form. The cinema is not just entertainment—it’s a vital lens through which I understand the
17 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
March 8, 2026
If she could, Amber would be a wall painted nondescript grey. Paint isn’t like wallpaper. It can’t be removed completely. No matter how much sanding down, they would still be
9 min read
by Rebecca Martin
December 3, 2019
Greta Fernández delivers a powerhouse performance in Belén Funes’ “A Thief’s Daughter”. Her character Sara takes us through so many pieces of her life. While we follow her, we are
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
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
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
15 min read
by Rebecca Martin
March 19, 2021
With the atrocities that happened this week in Atlanta that resulted in the deaths of Asian American women, and with the hashtag #StopAsianHate streaming through social media, a film like
6 min read
by Rebecca Martin
February 28, 2021
Amina Maher is brave. Her short film “Letter to My Mother” is a triumph and a courageous way for the filmmaker to break her silence about the abuse she endured
12 min read
by Rebecca Martin
February 15, 2021
I am in love. I’m in love with Marion Hill’s ‘Ma Belle, My Beauty.’ This film is a romance that involves many people, but at the heart of it is
9 min read
by Rebecca Martin
August 28, 2020
“Every image or sound is a vessel for emotion: rapture, despair, sensuousness, fury, a combination of these. That makes cinema a kind of legerdemain: the art of sculpting such seemingly
13 min read
by Matt Fagerholm
June 29, 2020
“For many years, I had to confront the cruel system in my home country that does not tolerate people with a different mindset. People judged me for my ideas as
13 min read
Filmmaker Anna Kerrigan takes us on the heartfelt journey of a father and his trans son in “Cowboys”
by Rebecca Martin
May 6, 2020
I like that idea that when you’re in nature you can be your true self, and not influenced by the constructs of your society. It’s a really interesting way to
10 min read
by Rebecca Martin
December 5, 2019
5 min read
by Rebecca Martin
July 19, 2019
I am ready to share with the world that I am a freaky queer femme sex worker domme and I am also a fucking filmmaker. —Molly Hewitt/Glamhag June, 2019 Molly
16 min read
by Rebecca Martin
July 15, 2019
9 min read
by Rebecca Martin
March 8, 2026
For me, movies and meaning are inseparable; I process my daily life through this art form. The cinema is not just entertainment—it’s a vital lens through which I understand the
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
8 min read
by Peyton Robinson
February 9, 2026
Whether a creator or observer, one’s relationship with art dictates a host of qualities: values, ambitions, fantasies, etc. That umbrella term – art – can be composed of so many
6 min read
by Emily Jacobson
February 5, 2026
For my final dispatch of Sundance 2026, I talk about three films I screened virtually from home (though I originally saw “The Musical” in Park City, but I enjoyed it
8 min read
by Peyton Robinson
February 3, 2026
For many women, sexual discovery is a kind of reckoning. It comes in waves. Answering the question of “what was your first sexual experience?” can be immensely complex when bearing
7 min read
by Emily Jacobson
February 3, 2026
As I got deeper into the festival and more sleep deprived, my second dispatch from Sundance saw some common themes begin to emerge in the films I was seeing. In
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
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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
When John Alan Schwartz’s “Faces of Death” came out in 1978, it emerged at a time when the proliferation of violent images wasn’t as ubiquitous
Submissions Link: filmfreeway.com/CinemaFemme 🎬 Cinema Femme Short Film Festival Returns to the Music Box Theatre and New Festival Director Announced Cinema Femme Short Film Festival
Emmy-winning filmmaker Stephanie Laing has built a career on finding humanity in unlikely places—whether through the biting satire of Veep or the emotionally layered storytelling
About a year ago, I sat down for what was probably my sixth movie of the day at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. My eyes
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
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
When John Alan Schwartz’s “Faces of Death” came out in 1978, it emerged at a time when the proliferation of violent images wasn’t as ubiquitous
Submissions Link: filmfreeway.com/CinemaFemme 🎬 Cinema Femme Short Film Festival Returns to the Music Box Theatre and New Festival Director Announced Cinema Femme Short Film Festival
Emmy-winning filmmaker Stephanie Laing has built a career on finding humanity in unlikely places—whether through the biting satire of Veep or the emotionally layered storytelling
About a year ago, I sat down for what was probably my sixth movie of the day at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. My eyes
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
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
When John Alan Schwartz’s “Faces of Death” came out in 1978, it emerged at a time when the proliferation of violent images wasn’t as ubiquitous
Submissions Link: filmfreeway.com/CinemaFemme 🎬 Cinema Femme Short Film Festival Returns to the Music Box Theatre and New Festival Director Announced Cinema Femme Short Film Festival
Emmy-winning filmmaker Stephanie Laing has built a career on finding humanity in unlikely places—whether through the biting satire of Veep or the emotionally layered storytelling
About a year ago, I sat down for what was probably my sixth movie of the day at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. My eyes
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
