Women’s Films Opening Today
We Need to Talk About Kevin
I saw We Need to Talk About Kevin co-written and directed by Lynne Ramsay at the Toronto Film Festival. It was one of the best movies I saw there and it is still one of the best movies that I have seen this year. My thoughts (which I wrote at the festival) on the film are below. Not only have they not changed, they have actually gotten stronger as I have seen some of the other movies in the Oscar race. Read more.
Joyful Noise
Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton star in Joyful Noise, a funny and inspirational story of music, hope, love and renewal. The small town of Pacashau, Georgia, has fallen on hard times, but the people are counting on the Divinity Church Choir to lift their spirits by winning the National Joyful Noise Competition. The choir has always known how to sing in harmony, but the discord between its two leading ladies now threatens to tear them apart. Their newly appointed director, Vi Rose Hill (Latifah), stubbornly wants to stick with their tried-and-true traditional style, while the fiery G.G. Sparrow (Parton) thinks tried-and-true translates to tired-and-old.
Shaking things up even more is the arrival of G.G.’s rebellious grandson, Randy (Jeremy Jordan). Randy has an ear for music, but he also has an eye for Vi Rose’s beautiful and talented daughter, Olivia (Keke Palmer), and the sparks between the two teenagers are causing even more friction between G.G. and Vi Rose. If these two strong-willed women can put aside their differences for the good of the people in their town, they-and their choir-may make the most joyful noise of all.
Women’s Films Now Playing
Pariah – written and directed by Dee Rees
The Iron Lady – written by Abi Morgan and directed by Phyllida Lloyd
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Young Adult – written by Diablo Cody
Mozart’s Sister
My Week with Marilyn
Breaking Dawn – Part 1 - written by Melissa Rosenberg
Melancholia
Women Directed Films Opening Today
Sing Your Song – directed by Susanne Rostock
Wonderfully archived, and told with a remarkable sense of intimacy, visual style, and musical panache, Susanne Rostock’s inspiring biographical documentary, Sing Your Song, surveys the life and times of singer/actor/activist Harry Belafonte. (Indiewire via Sundance)
Currently Playing
In the Land of Blood and Honey – written and directed by Angelina Jolie
My Reincarnation – Jennifer Fox (doc)
Being Elmo - directed by Constance Marks (doc)
Women Written Films Now Playing
We Bought a Zoo – co-written by Aline Brosh McKenna
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows – co-written by Michele Mulroney
New Year’s Eve – written by Katherine Fugate
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy- co-written by Bridget O’Connor
Shame – co-written by Abi Morgan
2012 Athena Award Winners: Julia Barry accepting The Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of her late mother; Rachael Horovitz; Julie Taymor; Dee Rees; Nekisa Cooper; Theresa Rebeck and The Fempire: Diablo Cody, Dana Fox, Liz Meriwether, Lorene Scafaria
A production of Barnard’s Athena Center for Leadership Studies and Women and Hollywood, the Festival boasts a diverse range of films that exemplify its mission-to illuminate the stories of courageous women who have made a difference across the globe.
The Athena Film Festival Awards honor extraordinary women for their leadership and creative accomplishments. This year, the Festival is creating The Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award, in memory of Hollywood producer and founder of Stand Up to Cancer who died in June 2011. Her daughter, Julia Barry, will accept the award on behalf of her mother. In future years, the Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to a trailblazer in the film industry who sets an exemplary standard for other women to emulate.
The Athena Film Festival Awards will be presented at the Opening Night Celebration on Thursday, February 9.
The lineup of features, documentaries and shorts that are set to screen at the Festival includes The Whistleblower starring Rachel Weisz, Wish Me Away, the coming out journey of country singer Chely Wright, Black Butterfliesstarring Carice Van Houten, who won the best actress award at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, and HBO’s Gloria: In Her Own Words, a documentary about Gloria Steinem. The Lady starring Michelle Yeoh as Burmese activist Aung San Suu Kyi will serve as the closing film of the Festival.
“This year’s lineup is a diverse lot from numerous countries in multiple languages: women firefighters and aviators; women who made peace, who made music and who used their “naked power” to stand up to injustice, says Kathryn Kolbert, co-founder of the Festival and the Constance Hess Williams Director of the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College. “We have been inspired as we watched so many extraordinary films about courageous women,” says Melissa Silverstein, co-founder and artistic director of the Festival and head of Women and Hollywood, an online leader in the conversation about women’s roles in the film industry. “We hope the festival will encourage more filmmakers to tell these remarkable stories.”
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