kathryn bigelow – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

October 28, 2025October 28, 2025 Valerie Kalfrin A House of Dynamite, Greta Lee, Idris Elba, jared harris, kathryn bigelow, netflix, Noah Oppenheim, political thriller, rebecca ferguson, tracy letts, Volker Bertelmann

The lunacy out of Washington, DC, on any given day can overshadow the men and women who watch the skies in remote bases and secure spaces, monitoring our nation’s defenses around the clock. A House of Dynamite is a potent reminder. Now streaming on Netflix, this political thriller races through what happens after a missile arcs toward the United States, leaving just precious minutes to determine how to respond. It’s an intense and draining watch—and a larger existential story about the senselessness of it all.

Festivals

New York Film Festival 2025 Roundup – Margaret Barton-Fumo reports

October 15, 2025October 24, 2025 Margaret Barton-Fumo A House Full of Dynamite, A Private Life, After the Hunt, claire denis, Duse, Geeta Gandbhir, Jodi Foster, kathryn bigelow, Miroirs No. 3, New York Film Festival, nina hoss, NYFF 2025, Rebecca Zlotowski, Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value', the fence, The Perfect Neighbor, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi

This year, the 63rd annual New York Film Festival boasted an impressive roster of women-produced and women-prominent features, spanning across a variety of different genres. In general, this year’s more anticipated, big-ticket films turned out to be less remarkable than some of the quieter releases, as we’ll address in this roundup. The festival opener, for example, Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt, while an apt showcase for Julia Roberts, was a coolly received treatise on cancel culture told from within the confines of the ivory tower of academia. Other films in the Main Slate, like Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind and Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, while more understated features, received greater praise from audiences and critics alike.

News

WEEK IN WOMEN: Lizzie Borden’s BORN IN FLAMES is reborn in Blu-ray release – Brandy McDonnell reports

September 10, 2025September 10, 2025 Brandy McDonnell Adele Bertei, Born in Flames, Florynce Kennedy, Jean Satterfield, kathryn bigelow, lizzie borden, the criterion collection, the week in women, twiw

Lizzie Borden’s iconic 1983 film Born in Flames is set to be released on Blu-ray on Sept. 16 by The Criterion Collection. Told through a furiously fractured, kinetically edited flurry of television news broadcasts, pirate radio transmissions, agitprop and protests shot guerrilla-style on the streets of New York City, Born in Flames is a shock wave of feminist futurism that’s considered both an essential document of its time and radically ahead of it.

Festivals

FALL FESTIVAL PREVIEW 2025 – Christina Jeurling Birro reports

July 29, 2025August 3, 2025 Christina Jeurling Birro Agnieszka Holland, chloe zhao, fall film festivals, Kaouther Ben Hania, kathryn bigelow, laura poitras, Mona Fastvold, nia dacosta, scarlett johansson, sofia coppola, toronto international film festival, Venice International Film Festival

Bigelow’s back, Zhao tackles Shakespeare, and More as the fall film festivals unveil their lineups. The fall film festival season kicks off on the Lido in Venice in less than a month, then rolls on from the mountains of Telluride to Toronto, and beyond. This year promises a strong showing from female directors across many lineups. Here are just a few of the exciting films to keep your eyes on!

Interviews

Rachel Lambert talks SOMETIMES I THINK ABOUT DYING – Rachel West Interviews

January 23, 2024January 26, 2024 Rachel West Alex Saks, Daisy Ridley, Dave Merheje, jane campion, kathryn bigelow, Rachel Lambert, Sometimes I Think About Dying, Sundance FF 2023

After debuting at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023, director Rachel Lambert’s Sometimes I Think About Dying is opening in theatres this week. The film follows Fran (Daisy Ridley), a woman who likes to think about dying. Finding an unexpected connection with a new colleague at work (Dave Merheje), Fran explores her idea of identity and loneliness as she finds new modes of human connection. AWFJ’s Rachel West spoke with Lambert about her new film, working with Daisy Ridley, and how three women came together to not only get the film made, but have it play the opening night of Sundance.

News

WEEK IN WOMEN: Kathryn Bigelow to direct AURORA – Brandy McDonnell reports

May 31, 2022June 5, 2022 Brandy McDonnell david koepp, kathryn bigelow, netflix, the week in women, twiw

Academy Award winner Kathryn Bigelow is directing a feature film adaptation of Aurora for Netflix. The film will be based on David Koepp’s upcoming novel, to be published June 7 by HarperCollins. The story follows characters who are coping with the collapse of the social order, set against a catastrophic worldwide power crisis.

Commentaries News Women on Film

THE WEEK IN WOMEN: Iran’s Female-Directed Oscar Pick, Plus Portman, Bigelow, Winslet and more — Brandy McDonnell Reports

November 19, 2017November 19, 2017 Brandy McDonnell 0 Comments iranian films, kate winslet, kathryn bigelow, natalie portman, oscars, rachel dretzins, the week in women

Natalie Portman wins Israel’s Genesis Prize, Iran makes first Academy Award submission directed by a woman, Sundance Selects acquires Rachel

Movie of the Week Reviews

DETROIT — Review by Susan Granger

August 19, 2017June 7, 2020 Susan Granger 0 Comments detroit, kathryn bigelow, motw, Movie of the Week

In this scathing docudrama, Kathryn Bigelow, the Oscar-winning director of “The Hurt Locker’ and “Zero Dark Thirty,” depicts the civil unrest that rocked Detroit in the volatile summer of 1967. It begins on the night of July 23 with a violent police raid on “The Blind Pig,” an unlicensed bar and African-American social club located on the second floor of a printing company, inciting what came to be known as the 12th Street Riot.

Movie of the Week Reviews

MOVIE OF THE WEEK August 18-25: DETROIT

August 13, 2017May 10, 2019 Betsy Bozdech 0 Comments Cate Marquis, cynthia fuchs, detroit, jennifer merin, kathryn bigelow, leba hertz, mark boal, nell minow, Pam Grady, thelma adams

Intense. Infuriating. Immediate. Kathryn Bigelow’s powerful, often-heartbreaking historical drama Detroit is all of these things and more. Set amid the chaos, violence, and anger of the riots that dominated Motor City during the summer of 1967, the film’s narrative focuses on the police brutality that took place at the Algiers Motel on July 25 and 26 of that year, and the justice system’s subsequent whitewashing of that heinous event. Continue reading…

Reviews

DETROIT — Review by Pam Grady

August 12, 2017June 7, 2020 Pam Grady 0 Comments detroit, kathryn bigelow, mark boal, motw, Movie of the Week

In the summer of 1967, while the West Coast grooved to the Summer of Love, Detroit burned in five days of rioting that pitted the African American community against the arrayed forces of the Detroit police department, Michigan state police, and the National Guard. In her most potent film to date, Kathryn Bigelow reteams with screenwriter Mark Boal to stunningly recreate that time.

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