Applications are open for the NYWIFT (New York Women in Film & Television) Loreen Arbus Disability Awareness Grant. Now in its 15th year, the grant is provided by disability rights advocate Loreen Arbus and awards $6,500 to a woman filmmaker for a film about physical or developmental disability issues.

“Courtesy of Michele Spitz, Woman of Her Word will produce the winning film’s audio description asset as a post-production in kind grant,” a press release details. The donation will “allow for the film to be accessible for blind or visually impaired audiences. ReelAbilities Film Festival, the largest disabilities film festival in North America, will provide captioning service for the selected film

One of our most anticipated titles out of Sundance 2023 has found a home following its world premiere at the fest, where it took home the Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. Sony Pictures Classics has landed rights to “Shayda,” Noora Niasari’s feature debut. A press release announced the news.

Counting Cate Blanchett among its exec producers, “Shayda” follows an Iranian woman living in Australia who “finds refuge in a women’s shelter with her six-year-old daughter, Mona. Having fled her husband, Hossein, and filed for divorce, Shayda struggles to maintain normalcy and create a new home for Mona. Buoyed by the approach of Nowruz (Persian New Year), Shayda

The Athena Film Festival (AFF) at Barnard College announced its initial programming lineup for the 2023 festival today. The 13th annual festival, which is a joint partnership between Barnard’s Athena Center for Leadership and the initiative Women and Hollywood, will take place from March 2 to March 5 on Barnard’s campus. The annual festival includes film screenings, in-depth conversations and panels with filmmakers and industry experts, a series of programs that support the pipeline of women creatives, and a wide variety of events focused on celebrating and amplifying the stories of bold, courageous women leaders.

JUDY BLUME FOREVER, directed by Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok, will screen as the

Eliza Scanlen is earning praise for her leading performance in another woman director’s feature debut. She took home an Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Award for Shannon Murphy’s “Babyteeth” a few years back, and now she’s getting glowing reviews for “The Starling Girl,” Laurel Parmet’s first feature. Deadline reports that Bleecker Street has nabbed North American rights to the coming-of-age drama following its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival last month. A theatrical release is planned for later this year.

Penned by Parmet, “The Starling Girl” tells the story of 17-year-old Jem Starling (Eliza Scanlen), “who struggles to define her place within her fundamentalist Christian community in

With “The Persian Version,” Maryam Keshavarz became the first director to have two films win the Sundance Audience Award in the Dramatic Competition category. The dramedy about Iranian immigrants also landed her The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award (U.S. Dramatic Competition) out of Park City this year. In a “competitive situation,” Sony Pictures Classics has scored North American rights to the buzzy title. A press release confirmed the news.

“Coming from two countries at odds with each other, Iranian-American Leila (Layla Mohammadi) strives to find balance and embrace her opposing cultures, while boldly challenging the labels society is so quick to project upon her. When her family reunites in New York

Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum is bringing another woman-penned novel to the screen. The director will follow up 2022 Sofia Carson-starrer “Purple Hearts,” based on the book by Tess Wakefield, with “Mary Jane,” an adaptation of Jessica Anya Blau’s bestselling coming-of-age novel, for Sony and 3000 Pictures. Blau is penning the script. Deadline broke the news about the project.

Published in 2021, “Mary Jane” centers on “an innocent teenager from a very conservative 1970s Baltimore family” who gets a summer job babysitting, “only to find out that her employer is a progressive psychologist who’s secretly treating a rock star and his superstar wife for rehab at his home. As Mary Jane is

Noémie Merlant finds herself in another living nightmare in “Baby Ruby.” After escaping the clutches of an egomaniacal boss in ‘Tár,” the French actress plays a new mother who begins to question her reality in “Baby Ruby.” Our exclusive clip of Bess Wohl’s feature debut sees Jo (Merlant) trying to bond with other mothers.

A lifestyle entrepreneur known for her viral soufflé, Jo is used to making things look effortless. But she’s struggling with motherhood. She knows babies cry but Ruby never seems to stop. “How do you do it?” she asks the other moms. “You guys look so happy and relaxed and rested — and your babies are so

Uzo Aduba is saying goodbye to treating patients in therapy and hello to investigating a homicide in the White House. The three-time Emmy winner is following up her latest role on the small screen, playing Dr. Brooke Taylor in “In Treatment,” with “The Residence,” a murder-mystery drama hailing from Shondaland. Deadline reports that Liza Johnson will direct the first four episodes of the series.

Taking inspiration from Kate Andersen Brower’s book “The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House,” “the eight-episode series is described as ‘a screwball whodunnit set in the upstairs, downstairs, and back stairs of the White House, among the eclectic staff of the world’s most

“Grace and Frankie” ended its seven season run back in 2020, but that hasn’t stopped the sitcom’s stars from sharing the screen together. Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin topline “Moving On,” a revenge comedy that made its world premiere at last year’s edition of the Toronto International Film Festival. A new trailer for the pic introduces us to Claire (Fonda) and Evie (Tomlin), old pals who have lost touch. The pair reunite following the death of a mutual friend.

“I’m going to kill you,” Claire tells her dearly departed friend’s husband (Malcolm McDowell). “Now that she’s gone I’m going to do it this weekend.” It’s not clearly laid out why

“The Power” is finally coming to the small screen. First announced in 2019, the series adaptation of Naomi Alderman’s bestselling novel hits Prime Video next month. A new trailer for the feminist dystopian sci-fi hints at a revolution in the making. “Teenage girls are developing a new organ,” we’re told. “One that generates electricity.” Teen girls suddenly have the ability electrocute people, causing a seismic shift in society.

“This power is evolution,” a politician (Toni Collette, “The Staircase”) emphasizes.

We also hear from a teen who has been affected. “I was living in constant fear. Now I feel 100 times stronger. Can you imagine that kind of freedom?” she asks.