51fest’s first-ever run took place July 18-21 at the IFC Center. The festival aligned with a heatwave, but nonetheless people lined up enthusiastically in anticipation. Partnering with Women in the World and IFC Center, 51fest is a festival centered on women filmmakers. According to their mission statement, “Women make up more than half of [the]…

The 57th Annual New York Film Festival will feature 29 films on their main slate - six from female directors, making up 20 percent of the lineup. Running from September 27 through October 13 at Film at Lincoln Center, the festival’s lineup includes films from directors Kelly Reichardt, Agnes Varda, Celine Sciamma, Mati Diop, Justine…

The 25th annual Black Harvest Film Festival will run from August 3-29 with 60 films, including 27 directed by women (an increase from last year’s festival when there were only 17 female filmmakers). Two years ago, I interviewed Nancy Buirski, director of The Rape of Recy Taylor. The documentary was about a Black woman who…

The 76th Venice Film Festival, which runs from August 28 through September 7, has doubled the amount of women directors from last year’s slate - with a total of two out of 21 films directed by women. Saudi Arabian director Haifaa Al-Mansour’s The Perfect Candidate and Australian director Shannon Murphy’s Babyteeth are the only two…

Human rights, poverty, gangs, political revolution and LGBT issues are just some of the topics that will be covered at the Asian American International Film Festival (July 25-August 3) this year. The festival (also known as AAIFF) will screen 27 films and documentaries, along with workshops, shorts by local college students, Q&As, and panels discussing…

Women directed/co-directed more than half the films (seven of 13) in the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, at New York City’s Lincoln Center and IFC Center, June 14–20.  They were intensely personal autobiographies and portraits.  In 30th Anniversary trailer, past participating director Pamela Yates admires that the Fest “is not just about denunciation and exposure,…

Members of the FF2 Media team were able to attend a screening of Ophelia at the IFC Center on June 26, along with a Q&A with star, Daisy Ridley. Based on Lisa Klein’s novel of the same name, the film is a retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet from Ophelia’s point of view. Claire McCarthy directs the…