During June, 2013, the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, a nonprofit association of leading professional critics and feature writers who work in print, broadcast and online media in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, has presented four EDA Awards to women directors for their outstanding achievements in documentary filmmaking. Read more>>

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists announced seven nominees for a special EDA award, created to celebrate POV’s 25th anniversary. The winner will be announced at POV’s 26th-season launch party at its headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y. on Thursday, June 6, 2013.

With this EDA award, the AWFJ will honor the best female-directed film from the curated program MoMA Selects: POV, a 25th Anniversary Retrospective, presented at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in February and March of 2013. A jury of five AWFJ members selected the nominees. Read more>>.

Recent events indicate that gender often plays a role in popular film criticism. In February of this year, Rex Reed, film critic for the New York Observer, made an issue of Melissa McCarthy’s weight in his review of Identity Thief. This incident followed closely on the heels of a (now former) male editor at the Niagara Falls Reporter ordering a critic to refrain from reviewing films with strong female characters.

While such anecdotal stories are attention getting, they reveal little about the relationship between gender, film critics, and movie reviews. Read more

Hard times continue for female directors — not only in Hollywood, but at film fests,l Read more>>

Here’s a cheat sheet for the roster of female directors who should have made the 2013 list of Oscar nominations, starting with Kathryn Bigelow, whose latest military film is clouded by controversy over its depiction of torture. Read more>>

Assorted real world influencers, including journalists, filmmakers and public officials, are giving unusual scrutiny to Zero Dark Thirty, asking the question “How much truth is too much truth in a fiction film — especially when the film purports to be truth-based?” Read more>>

Women who work behind the camera are wondering if Kathryn Bigelow’s historic Oscar for Best Director for THE HURT LOCKER was a watershed moment or just a blip on a notoriously fickle industry’s radar.
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Like the movies themselves, movie criticism has migrated from analog to digital. Some thoughts. Read more>>

March brings a solid parade of female-directed and woman-centered films, from romances to family dramas to the high-octane thriller ‘Silent House.’ For serial escape, see them all.
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Give Lindsay Lohan an A for effort, a B for execution and extra credit points for bravery…and wonder why the tabloids are hog-tying her in double-binds and
double-standards. Read more>>