The Gene Siskel Film Center will present the 22nd Annual Chicago European Union Film Festival from March 8 through April 4, with 22 films directed by women (more than one-third of the films screened). The festival will present 60 premieres from 28 European Union nations, making it the largest EU cinema showcase in North America.…

The Gene Siskel Film Center will present the 22nd Annual Chicago European Union Film Festival from March 8 through April 4, with 22 films directed or co-directed by women (more than one-third of the films screened). The festival will present 60 premieres from 28 European Union nations, making it the largest EU cinema showcase in…

Chicago’s Asian Pop-Up Cinema Season 8 Program announced its 16 films for its festival, scheduled for March 12 to April 24. The semi-annual festival will showcase 23 filmmakers (four are women) and will run at the AMC River East in Chicago. The four films directed by women include: Ten Years (Akiyo Fujimura): Five directors share…

Nothing says romance more than Valentine’s Day...except for maybe a good romantic comedy!  Thanks to the efforts of Miraya Berke, the first ever Rom Com Fest will be taking place on June 20-23 in Los Angeles at the Downtown Independent (251 S. Main St.) to not only celebrate rom-coms, but to shed a new light…

The Sundance Film Festival continues to be a frontrunner in paving a path for new voices and the 2019 festival is no exception to this observation.  With nearly half of the director seats occupied by women (45 percent) and more than 70 percent of the awards presented to women, it’s obvious that women are finally…

When director and filmmaker Roberta Grossman read Professor Samuel Kassow’s book Who Will Write Our History, she was fascinated, horrified and outraged that such a powerful and poignant story had received less media attention than other prominent histories of the Holocaust. She was inspired to turn Kassow's book into a blended documentary that captures the…

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) hosted a much-needed panel at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in front of an eager and excited crowd. Women Breaking Barriers: Where Are We Now? took place on Jan 26 at the Packed Sundance TV Lounge, moderated by HFPA members Elisabeth Sereda and Silvia Bizio, including award-winning producer Cassian…

This year’s Sundance Film Festival is a breakthrough for women in film. More and more female directors, writers and producers are accepted into the festival and audiences are able to see and experience a great collection of female-made films. In addition to exceptional films, the opening days of the festival included many panels focused on…

Four Chicago film critics provided their thoughts about the 91st Academy Award nominations January 22. FF2 Media Contributor Pamela Powell joined WGN’s Dean Richards, WCIU’s Brandon Pope and Hollywood and Chicago’s Patrick McDonald at the CMX Cinemas in Skokie to discuss their favorite films, along with snubs and surprises. The critics unanimously agreed that Roma…

This year’s Sundance Film Festival (Park City/Salt Lake City, Utah) will be different. What makes it different is the presence of female-directed movies - close to 42 percent, according to Women and Hollywood report. With a four percent overall increase from last year, female-directed films will be featured in various categories, including large percentages in…

Although the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has faced backlash of their mostly-male, mostly-white nominees, generating hashtag campaigns like #OscarsSoWhite and #OscarsSoBlue, FF2 Media continues championing #MakeOscarGold: merit-based award nominations.

Have a case of the winter blues? Get out and see a film festival! The New York Jewish Film Festival runs from January 9-22 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Out of the 22 feature films playing at the festival, eight are by women directors.

There were many triumphant moments for women at the 76th Golden Globe Awards, despite very few female writers and directors being represented in film categories. Many winning actresses used their acceptance speeches as an opportunity to champion female creators. On the television side, Best Actress Rachel Brosnahan of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel thanked many women…

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has once again neglected to acknowledge female filmmakers in its pool of Golden Globe nominees. For the fourth year in a row, no women are nominated for best director. Only five women have ever been nominated in this category, and Barbra Streisand is the only winner (for Yentl in 1984).…

Despite the supposed advances for women in the entertainment industry fueled by the #MeToo movement of 2017, the first round of awards cycle nominations show little progress for acknowledging female directors.

Out of the 135 features, 62 of them -- or 46 percent -- have female directors or co-directors, an increase at the festival compared to both 2016 and 2017. “We have typically had representation of female filmmakers at 40 percent or more over the past several years,” said Basil Tsiokos, director of programming.

The New York Film Festival of the Film Society of Lincoln Center (FSLC) sets the standard for the best arthouse films in the U.S.  The 56th annual festival opened September 28, 2018, and ran through October 14.  This year’s included a modest number of women directors, but, as Ruth Gordon wrote in the classic Pat…

The Chicago International Film Festival wraps up today after featuring an excellent 12-day lineup, 30 percent of which was directed by women. Female characters and their creators played a central role in this year’s festival, from documentaries to foreign language features, but it was the following films directed by women that made the most impact.…

Continue to support more female filmmakers by attending Ash Mayfair’s The Third Wife (Vietnam), Natalia Cabral’s film Miriam Lies (Dominican Republic, Spain), Laura Bispuri’s film Daughter of Mine (Italy) and Sudabeh Mortezai’s film Joy (Austria). For more information on the CIFF, please visit their site.

In part one of FF2 Media’s “Best of the Fest” coverage for the 54th Annual Chicago International Film Festival, we covered several interesting films directed by women. CIFF will run through October 21 at the AMC River East Theater. Support female filmmakers by attending the festival and screening McKenzie Chinn’s Olympia (United States) and Natalya…

The 54th annual Chicago International Film Festival began October 10 and will run through October 21 at the AMC River East Theater. There are 5,596 films from 135 countries - 38 of those films are directed by women.