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The directors that popular culture considers to be the greatest of all time — Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg, for example — are almost always men. While female directors have spearheaded successful films across genres like superhero, action, and horror, it is men who typically receive the funding, global attention, and prestige projects that cement their legacy in film history.

There have only been 10 women nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards, and it wasn't until 2021 that more than one woman was nominated in the category: Chloé Zhao for "Nomadland" and Emerald Fennell for "Promising Young Woman." In the 95-year history of the Academy Awards, only three women have won the Best Director prize: Chloé Zhao, Jane Campion, and Kathryn Bigelow.

There are so many incredible films made by visionary female directors, even ones that haven't received Oscar attention. Many of these films appear on Metacritic's highest-rated list. Metacritic celebrates...

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PixL is a subscription-based streaming channel perfect for anyone looking for clean, family-friendly entertainment. It’s...

An eight-year-old struggles with her gender identity one long, hot summer in Basque director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s beguiling debut feature

There’s something transformative about the summer holidays. Those long, relaxed weeks released from the constraints and expectations of school offer the promise of reinvention, of hitherto undreamed of freedoms. The blank slate of vacation friendships, forged in the moment, with no historical baggage to drag along, gives a chance to start again. It’s no coincidence that so many coming-of-age films unfold against the languid backdrop of an endless childhood summer. But for some kids, that sense of release brings with it its own particular stresses and anxieties. 20,000 Species of Bees, the assured feature debut from Basque director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren joins pictures such as Céline Sciamma’s Tomboy and Carla Simón’s Summer 1993 in using summer as the foundation for a story of a child struggling...

“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” was Céline Sciamma’s big breakout moment, but the French director was clearly a major talent in the making from the very start of her career.

In 2007, the then 29-year-old filmmaker premiered her first feature at Cannes Film Festival, after writing the movie’s script during her final year at the prestigious film school La Fémis. The story of three teen girls awakening to their sexualities during a single summer, “Water Lillies” featured Sciamma’s future romantic partner and collaborator Adèle Haenel, and established the type of female-focused and queer stories she would spend her entire career bringing to the screen.

Following the positive reception of “Water Lillies,” Sciamma chased it with 2011’s “Tomboy,” a sharply observed coming-of-age about a 10-year-old exploring their gender identity. 2014’s “Girlhood,” about four Black teen girls living in Paris, brought Sciamma further attention, thanks to a much talked...

In time, stories like “20,000 Species of Bees” will come to feel as commonplace within the coming-of-age genre as tales of first love or heartbreak: a young girl, unhappy in her skin and at odds with her family, finally recognizes her gender over the course of one pivotal summer, and persuades others to recognize it too. For now, Spanish writer-director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s mellow, softly piercing debut feature joins the likes of Céline Sciamma’s “Tomboy” and Emanuele Crialese’s “L’Immensità” in a select but growing canon of trans or nonbinary childhood studies. Unassuming and meanderingly character-oriented, the film doesn’t assert itself as an issue drama — in large part because, as Solaguren presents her eight-year-old protagonist’s gradual steps toward self-realization, her film doesn’t see much of an issue to begin with.

“How come you know who you are and I don’t?” Simply phrased but far more complex to answer,...

With rave reviews at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Neon has just released the trailer to Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Starring Adéle Haenel and Noémie Merlant, Sciamma’s film won both the Best Screenplay and Queer Palm at Cannes, making Sciamma the first woman to win the latter.

Coming off her two previous acclaimed films, 2011’s Tomboy and 2014’s Girlhood, Portrait of a Lady on Fire is set in France during the 18th century and follows the love story of a young painter who is commissioned to paint a wedding portrait unbeknownst to the bride-to-be.

Here’s the official synopsis:

Brittany, France, 1760. Marianne, a painter, is commissioned to do the wedding portrait of Héloïse, a young lady who has just left the convent. Héloïse is a reluctant bride to be and Marianne must paint her without her knowing. She observes her by day and secretly paints her at night.

Neon has released the first trailer for its searing love story Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which hails from writer-director Céline Sciamma (Tomboy, Girlhood). The film stars Noémie Merlant as a French artist who falls for the female subject she has been hired to paint, played by Adèle Haenel. Per Neon, the film is set in 18th century France where "a young painter, Marianne, is commissioned to do the wedding portrait of Héloïse without her knowing. Therefore, Marianne must observe her model by day to paint her portrait at night. Day by day, …...

Love knows no boundaries nor gender, even in history, as “Portrait Of A Lady On Fire” showcases the blossoming love between a French female artist and her subject. Directed and written by Céline Sciamma, whose previous work includes “Tomboy” and “Girlhood,” the film won two awards at the Cannes Film Festival. The awards were the Queer Palm and Best Screenplay Awards.

Continue reading ‘Portrait Of A Lady On Fire’ Trailer: Céline Sciamma’s Cannes-Winning French Romance Sees An Artist And Her Subject Fall In Love at The Playlist.

Anyone paying attention to the film festival circuit in 2019 is surely anticipating Neon’s upcoming release of “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.” The new drama from “Tomboy” and “Girlhood” director Céline Sciamma premiered at Cannes to instant rave reviews. IndieWire named “Portrait” one of the best movies at Cannes, and the romance drama has since gone on to earn even more acclaim at Telluride and Tiff. Neon’s first official trailer for “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” has finally arrived to give moviegoers a first taste of why the movie is one of the buzziest of 2019.

Neon’s official synopsis for “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” reads: “In 18th century France a young painter, Marianne (Noémie Merlant), is commissioned to do the wedding portrait of Héloïse (Adèle Haenel) without her knowing. Therefore, Marianne must observe her model by day to paint her portrait at night. Day by day,...

Rarely has there been a film title that was so apt in describing a film, and its maker. After contemporary social dramas on queerness and gender identity (Tomboy and Girlhood), writer/director Céline Sciamma's star continues to rise as she deftly handles a classical period film with her eye, again, to identity and presentation, at a time and in a class system where certain loves could definitely not speak their name. In 18th century Brittany, Marianne (Noémie Merlant), an artist, makes most of her limited earnings from painting portraits of the wealthy aristocracy. Her services an engaged by an Italian noblewoman (Valeria Golino), who needs an official portrait of her daughter Héloise (Adèle Haenel) before the daughter's marriage. Except that it was originally Héloise's sister who...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Hot off a widely well-received premiere this weekend — with IndieWire’s own David Ehrlich hailing it as “a painterly masterpiece” — Céline Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” has locked down North American distribution, care of Neon and Hulu as part of their exclusive film and content output licensing agreement.

Neon will release the film this year, boasting a “traditional theatrical release” for the sumptuous period romance, and will also pursue an awards campaign in all categories. The boutique distributor reportedly beat out a number of other bidders, including both Sony Pictures Classics and Netflix.

In an official press release, Neon and Hulu brass shared, “From the moment we saw this beautiful and captivating love story, we knew we had to release this film. From Celine’s writing and directing, to the absolutely absorbing performances, we couldn’t be more excited for audiences to experience this sensationally moving piece...

Cannes whiz kid Xavier Dolan may be readying to premiere his latest film, “Matthias & Maxime,” at the French festival that helped put him on the map, but the Québécois creator appears to have already picked a winner for this year’s Palme d’Or. In a moving and effusive Instagram post, the “Laurence Anyways” and “Mommy” filmmaker hailed Céline Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” as “magnificent” and a “powerful piece of cinema.” The film debuted to rave reviews this weekend, with IndieWire’s own David Ehrlich hailing it as “a painterly masterpiece.”

After completing a self-described trilogy of coming-of-age films — “Water Lilies,” “Tomboy,” and “Girlhood” — Cannes regular Sciamma has shifted her interests in the female experience to her first-ever period piece. Set on an isolated island during the latter half of the eighteenth century, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” features “Heaven Will Wait” star Noémie Merlant...

Girlhood director Céline Sciamma’s gripping 18th-century story of obsession demonstrates a new mastery of classical style

Céline Sciamma has brought a superbly elegant, enigmatic drama to Cannes that compels a shiver of aesthetic pleasure and fear. With this new story, she demonstrates a deeply satisfying new mastery of classical style to go with the contemporary social realism she showed in Girlhood (2014) and Tomboy (2011).

The setting is 18th-century Brittany, where an Italian noblewoman (Valeria Golino) has engaged what is officially a ladies’ companion for her beautiful daughter, Héloïse (Adèle Haenel), who has just come out of a convent and is recovering from the loss of her sister. The companion, Marianne (Noémie Merlant), is actually an artist, and the countess wishes her to paint a portrait of Héloïse in secret, to be shown to a wealthy prospective husband in Milan, because headstrong Héloïse would never consent to sitting for any such picture.

Halfway through Céline Sciamma’s razor-sharp and shatteringly romantic “Portrait of a Lady Fire” — as perfect a film as any to have premiered this year — the three main characters sit around a candlelit dinner table and argue the meaning of what happened between Orpheus and Eurydice. More specifically, the point of contention hinges on what motivated Orpheus to ignore the instructions he was given and turn around to look at his love, even though he knew it would cause her to vanish from the world forever.

Sophie (Luàna Bajrami), a naïve young house servant, opts for the most literal interpretation of the ancient tale: She insists that Orpheus was an idiot. But Héloïse (a brilliant Adèle Haenel), the older, booksmart, but similarly inexperienced daughter of the absent widow who owns the place, awakens to a different understanding. To her mind, Orpheus was completely in control of his wits, he just...

Céline Sciamma has served as a driving force in French cinema ever since she arrived on the scene a decade ago with the Un Certain Regard entry Water Lilies. She quickly earned a reputation for her sharply observed explorations of gender and growing up thanks to 2011’s Tomboy and 2014’s Girlhood. She’s also a founder of the 5050x2020 movement, France’s answer to the #MeToo movement, which has pushed for gender equity in the film industry and helped persuade the Cannes Film Festival to establish an evenly split selection committee and publish its submission statistics for the first time....

Céline Sciamma has served as a driving force in French cinema ever since she arrived on the scene a decade ago with the Un Certain Regard entry Water Lilies. She quickly earned a reputation for her sharply observed explorations of gender and growing up thanks to 2011’s Tomboy and 2014’s Girlhood. She’s also a founder of the 5050x2020 movement, France’s answer to the #MeToo movement, which has pushed for gender equity in the film industry and helped persuade the Cannes Film Festival to establish an evenly split selection committee and publish its submission statistics for the first time....

The 72nd Cannes Film Festival announced its lineup, boosting the number of female filmmakers in official selection to 13, four of whom will compete for the Palme d’Or. The number of Americans is also up, including Terrence Malick (“A Hidden Life”), Ira Sachs (Isabelle Huppert starrer “Frankie”), and director Jim Jarmusch’s “The Dead Don’t Die,” which was previously announced as the opening night film.

Conspicuously absent from the titles announced during the Paris-based press conference was Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” which is still in editing, according to artistic director Thierry Frémaux, and which he hopes will be completed in time to premiere at Cannes.

Other high-profile films in the lineup include Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory,” now playing in Spanish cinemas, and new films from past Palme d’Or winners Ken Loach (“Sorry We Missed You”), who has competed 13 times before, and...

While "Kick-Ass" creator Mark Millar confirms there will be a third "Kick-Ass" movie to complete the trilogy, director Matthew Vaughan and his Marv Films is also looking to produce a stand-alone "Hit-Girl" film:

The first "Kick-Ass" feature released in 2010 on a budget of $30 million, earned $100 million world-wide, then sold over 1 million DVDs, scoring an additional $24 million. "Kick-Ass 2" on a budget of $28 million, released in 2013, earned $63 million world-wide plus an additional $15 million in DVD sales.

Although the numbers are not blockbuster, there is a dedicated fan-base including director Quentin Tarantino, that supports Chloë Grace Moretz' portrayal as the female vigilante 'Hit-Girl'.

The first female kid 'superhero'who wasn't someone's sidekick, was the character 'Tomboy' debuting in "Captain Flash" comics (1954)...

...with an age range and fighting abilities similar to 'Hit-Girl':

"...'Janie Jackson' was a young schoolgirl, who unbeknownst to her police detective father...

"...was secretly the crime-fighting 'Tomboy'.

Panda Bear will release his new album Buoys, the Animal Collective member’s first solo album in four years, in February 2019. Ahead of Buoys‘ arrival, the artist born Noah Lennox also unveiled the album’s breezy first single “Dolphin.”

Buoys also reunites Panda Bear with co-producer Rusty Santos; the pair last worked together on Panda Bear’s breakthrough 2007 solo album Person Pitch. Panda Bear’s previous two albums, 2011’s Tomboy and 2015’s Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper, were co-produced by Spacemen 3’s Pete “Sonic Boom” Kember.

For Buoys, recorded...

I do like titles that end with “by {insert author};” they save me time and space on my post titles. Perhaps I should do a year where I only read books like that.

(I rely on you readers to talk me out of patently stupid ideas like that one.)

I have a feeling Liz Prince has a more interesting and full cartooning career than I’ve managed to keep up with: I can be obtuse like that. I have read and liked her books Tomboy and Alone Forever , but I bet there’s more out there. I should probably take a look.

But right now I’m here to tell you about Look Back and Laugh , a collection of her journal comics from 2016. If I have this right, Prince started a Patreon sometime around then, and one of the rewards was a monthly printed collection of daily diary strips. She...

Alec Bojalad Oct 11, 2018

Now that the Heathers TV series is finally making its way to air, it's releasing not one but two soundtracks to celebrate.

It's been a long and winding road for the Heathers TV show to make it to air.

The dark high school series based on the 1988 film of the same name was initially set to premiere on TV Land in 2017. Then Heathers made its way over to the newly launched Paramount Network instead. Paramount decided to table Heathers for the foreseeable future following a rash of school shooting in the U.S. Finally, Paramount gave Heathers a trim from 10 episodes to 9 and is set to release the series on October 25.

To celebrate finally getting to see the light of day, Heathers is getting not one but two original soundtracks on Lakeshore Records.

The first soundtrack, Heathers-Original Television Series Soundtrack (Various Artists), is set to be released...

Sciamma’s previous films are Girlhood, Tomboy and Water Lilies.

Paris-based mk2 films has boarded international sales on Céline Sciamma’s upcoming period drama Portrait Of A Lady On Fire and Corneliu Porumboiu’s The Passenger as it revs up for the autumn festival and market circuit.

Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, which is currently in pre-production for a late autumn shoot, will be French director and writer Sciamma’s fourth feature after awarding winning productions Girlhood, Tomboy and Water Lilies.

Set in the 18th century, the new film revolves around the relationship between Héloïse, a reluctant bride to...

Susanna Nicchiarelli‬ on Trine Dyrholm, the star of Thomas Vinterberg's Festen and The Commune: "I wanted to work with her because she's one of my favourite actresses." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In the second half of my conversation with Nico, 1988 director/screenwriter Susanna Nicchiarelli at The Roxy Hotel, we discuss how Trine Dyrholm worked on the character, going into the studio to record Nico's songs, the look from costume designers Francesca Vecchi and Roberta Vecchi, and Nico's sense of irony.

Trine Dyrholm will be on this year's Venice International Film Festival jury, headed by Guillermo del Toro along with Nicole Garcia, Taika Waititi, Naomi Watts, Sylvia Chang, Christoph Waltz, Paolo Genovese, and Malgorzata Szumowska.

Susanna Nicchiarelli on Trine Dyrholm the singer: "We took Nico's songs and went in the studio, she sang them and the character came out of there with the body language." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Dyrholm as...

The Milk of SorrowIs there such a thing as a female gaze? It’s an almost perversely complicated question. On one hand, no doubt women’s desire has its own unique manifestations. On the other, the gaze implies the mind, and the idea of a “female brain” inevitably leads to some unpleasant associations. Should we then let the question be?Don’t expect the current retrospective on view at New York’s Film Society of Lincoln Center and dedicated to the female gaze—highlighting the work of women cinematographers—to be able to answer it in any definitive way. Yet some of its most fascinating films suggest that women cinematographers—and filmmakers—are able to transmit the idea, and the disconcerting sensation of always questioning gender and the expectations it entails into thrilling cinematic experiences. Among these, the pairings where both filmmaker and cinematographer are female prove particularly striking.Take...

There are roughly 900,000 tribute pieces online this week about the 1985 John Hughes film "The Breakfast Club," and I understand the motivation. If you were the right age when the film was released (I was 15 at the time), that movie felt like a lightning bolt right to the face. Hughes treated teenagers like they were actual people with complex emotional lives worthy of respect, and while that would seem to be a logical approach to writing about any character, it certainly didn't feel average when he did it. He wrote about that secret world of teenagers with what felt like laser accuracy, and he basically created an entire industry of movies that tried to tap into that same audience. So certainly, there is much to celebrate when looking back at that particular film, but when I went to look at a list of the films that came out in 1985, a year...

Stars: Christopher George, Patch Mackenzie, E. Danny Murphy, Michael Pataki, E.J. Peaker, Richard Balin, Carmen Argenziano, Beverly Dixon, Hal Bokar, Denise Cheshire, Bill Hufsey, Linnea Quigley, Vanna White | Written by Herb Freed, David Baughn, Anne Marisse | Directed by Herb Freed

Laura, played very briefly by Ruth Ann Llorens (The Comeback Kid) is a talented high school track runner who meets her demise during a race, where she collapses and dies on the spot in front of her whole school (how embarrassing! Even more so due to the fact she won!) Fingers are immediately pointed towards Coach Michaels, played by the ever charming Christopher George (City of the Living Dead, The Exterminator) because he is a determined and often ruthless son of a gun! A couple of months pass and Laura’s sister Anne, played by Patch Mackenzie (Serial, It’s Alive 3) returns home from the Navy to honour her sister’s graduation.

Saw 3D The Final Chapter (Blu-Ray)Lionsgate Home Entertainment2010/90 mins/UnratedList Price $39.99 – Now AvailableThe Saw franchise is actually a guilty pleasure for me, I like these films. Strange, since the first time I saw the original, it didn't click with me. I grew tired of its many subplots and flashbacks plus trying to guess exactly who the Jigsaw killer was. Once his identity was revealed, it gave the brilliant Tobin Bell the opportunity to create one of the most iconic villains in the horror genre. Except when you look at it from a certain point of view, Jigsaw isn't really a villain. He's not a serial killer either, but a scientist and philosopher, hoping to give people a new appreciation for their lives through trials by fire. At least that's how he looks at it. But you have to hand it to Jigsaw. Those few who survive his deadly traps...

Actress Betsy Russell might be a “Saw” veteran as Jill Tuck, the ex-wife of the notorious Jigsaw killer, but she also admitted that she covers her eyes whenever watching an installment of the popular “Saw” franchise. “Yeah, many times I couldn’t watch like the needle pit, the burning, there’s so many,” Russell admitted. “I’m going to turn the other way. I don’t like to concentrate on the traps.” According to “The Los Angeles Times,” Russell, who also starred in ‘80s movies like “Private School” and ‘Tomboy” and the recent thriller “Chain Letter” went out on a limb and confessed her belief that “Saw” fans see a deeper meaning in the films beyond their gory traps.

Article by Dana Jung

Ah, the 1980s. Big hair, flashy clothes, and that new TV channel that only shows music videos. Exploitation films too were changing. Gone were the Excorsist- and Omen-inspired horror films of the 70s. Biker movies were passe. And socially relevant nurse and teacher dramas were being replaced by teen comedies and a new type of scary movie: the slasher film. In 1985, New World Pictures released Out Of Control, a somewhat strange combination of Lord Of The Flies and a John Hughes movie that is harder to classify. In some ways the perfect drive-in movie, Out Of Control contains violent action, teen romance, sex, nudity, and pop music. But there is an undercurrent of weirdness to the film that, intentional or not, implies some deeper meaning behind the exploitive aspects and makes it interesting to watch for its details. However, if you missed it at the drive-in...