Brenda Chapman

New York Times Says ‘Female Directors Gain Ground, Slowly.’ Should We Wait That Long?

The great Carrie Rickey published a piece in the New York Times this past weekend with the depressing headline ‘Female Directors Gain Ground, Slowly’. The piece reported that in 2012, by their count, women directors hit a recent high of 9% of the 250 top grossing films.  That number...

The Academy Snubs Kathryn Bigelow for History Making Second Best Director Nomination

I sit here ruminating, fulminating and seething, thinking about how Kathryn Bigelow could have been overlooked for a second best director nomination.  I'm pretty sure the people who thought Ben Affleck was also a sure thing are wondering how this could have happened to him.

Heroines of Cinema: An A-Z of Women in Film in 2012

Given the difficulty in characterising a single year in film, even through a specific prism such as gender, I have opted for the catalogue format of an A-Z review.

2 Women Directed Animated Features on Oscar Shortlist

21 animated features have made it to the Oscar shortlist for best animated feature. Since over 16 films were submitted, a maximum of 5 films can be nominated. However, of these 21 animated features—that range from major animated features such as Wreck-It Ralph to independent animated films lik...

Cross Post: I Was Hired Because I Was A Woman

Yep. You read correctly. I was hired because I was a woman.

Director Brenda Chapman Says Disney Animation Hired Her Because She Was A Woman

Animation fans were shocked when, a year-and-a-half before the film’s release, animation giant Pixar fired Brenda Chapman, an animation vet and the studio’s first female director (she was also the only female member of the studio’s vaunted Brain Trust creative committee), from her deeply personal fi...

Cross Post: Brenda Chapman on Writing BRAVE

Director Brenda Chapman Says Being Removed From 'Brave' Was "Devastating"

The story of Disney/Pixar's "Brave" is a complicated one, fraught with battle-hardened debates and hurt feelings, and we're just talking about what happened behind the scenes of the Scottish-set fairy tale. Originally conceived as the first feature from a female filmmaker at the notoriously male-ori...

Original 'Brave' Director Brenda Chapman Leaves Pixar For Mystery LucasFilm Project

Well, this isn't exactly going to be shocking news to anyone who followed the long, sad history of Disney and Pixar's "Brave," but it looks like Brenda Chapman, the film's original director (she still wound up with a co-director credit even though she was removed from the film 18 months before the m...