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The documentary Maestra shines a spotlight on talented women striving to succeed in a male-dominated field. Directed by Maggie Contreras, the film follows five female conductors from around the world as they compete in La Maestra, the only international conducting competition exclusively for women.

Held in Paris every other year, La Maestra was founded in response to the shocking statistic that fewer than three percent of conductors for major orchestras are female. Through this competition, organizers hope to raise the profile of talented women and help advance their careers. The obstacles they face are real—from lack of opportunity and unfair criticism to challenges balancing professional ambitions with personal lives.

Contreras introduces us to a diverse cast of characters pouring their passion into the competition. There’s Zoe, a fiercely determined mother from Greece. Bubbly American Tamara dreams of starting a family while furthering her career. Quiet Ustina from Ukraine...

Prepare for an exhilarating showdown in the grand finale of “Mastermind” Season 21, airing on BBC Two at 6:00 Pm on Monday, April 1st, 2024. In this ultimate test of knowledge and wit, contestants will face off in a battle of intellect as they tackle a diverse range of specialist subjects.

From the Wimbledon singles championships 2000-present to the enigmatic artist Francis Bacon, viewers can expect a thrilling display of expertise and passion as contestants delve deep into their chosen fields. The ancient Greek poet Sappho, the Mercury Prize, the French revolutionary the Marquis de Lafayette, and the composer and pianist Clara Schumann also feature as challenging topics.

As the pressure mounts and the stakes soar, contestants will showcase their mastery of trivia and recall, leaving viewers on the edge of their seats. Who will emerge victorious and claim the coveted title of “Mastermind”? Tune in to BBC Two at 6:00 Pm on Monday,...

Arriving in the wake of Tár, Maestra reaches an audience primed to see the dark side of the classical music world. And while Cate Blanchett’s Lydia Tár stands out for her abusive behavior, she also represents one common fact: Very few conductors of major orchestras are women.

Maggie Contreras’ likeable, informative Tribeca documentary follows an event created in 2018 to address that inequity. Every two years, women in the early stages of their conducting careers join the La Maestra competition in Paris, vying to win attention and professional help. They need all the help they can get. Marin Alsop, a competition judge and perhaps the most famous female conductor in the world, says in the film that when she told her childhood violin teacher she wanted to conduct, she was told, “Girls can’t do that.” Deborah Borda, the head of La Maestra’s jury and CEO of the New York Philharmonic,...

In the Aquarius Films and ABC drama Savage River, Jocelyn Moorhouse was offered the kind of mini-series she’d love to watch herself.

The Dressmaker director is an enthusiastic binge watcher of crime mysteries and Scandi-noir – particularly those with great female characters – so the Katherine Langford-led series was right up her alley.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’ve always wanted to do one of these, and here it is.’ It’s dark, brooding and really well plotted,” she tells If.

Now three weeks into pre-production, Savage River was officially announced as part of the ABC’s upfronts today. Production will begin early next year in Melbourne and regional Victoria.

Langford plays Miki Anderson, a young woman who returns to her hometown in rural Victoria after eight years in prison.

She’s determined to finally move on with her life, getting a job in the local meatworks, but the...

Jocelyn Moorhouse with Dop Martin McGrath on the ‘Wakefield’ set.

Jocelyn Moorhouse was shooting the ABC’s Stateless when Jungle Entertainment offered her the gig of set-up director of the ABC drama Wakefield.

The concept was unlike anything she’d ever heard of, centering on the interaction between staff and patients at a Blue Mountains psychiatric hospital, leavened with musical numbers and tap dancing, so she was hooked.

Brit Rudi Dharmalingam plays Nik, a gifted psych nurse in the eight-episode show created by Kristen Dunphy, who is the showrunner with Sam Meikle, produced by Shay Spencer and Ally Henville for Jungle Entertainment and BBC Studios.

The sanest person in a pretty crazy place, Nik is confronted by a dark secret from his past when a song gets stuck in his head.

Reuniting with the director after collaborating on the Seven Network’s Wanted, Geraldine Hakewill plays a psychiatrist, with Mandy McElhinney as the head nurse.

Leah Purcell at Sydney's Belvoir Theatre. (Photo credit: Anthony Johnson).

Projects from the likes of Jocelyn Moorhouse, Leah Purcell, Vicki Madden, Rachel Perkins, Luke Davies, Sophie Hyde, Nicholas Verso, Abe Forsythe, Craig Silvey and Corrie Chen have received development funding from Screen Australia.

.This round of development funding reflects the vibrancy of the story landscape in Australia with thrillers and romance, crime and comedies, sports dramas and musicals,. said Screen Australia's Senior Development Manager Nerida Moore..

.We have projects from both seasoned storytellers and an exciting group of up-and-coming talents. And we are also seeing a greater mix of platforms from traditional features and high-end television to the ever-growing online drama and narrative Vr spaces..

Among the projects funded, which include 24 features, five online series and two "high-end" television projects, are:

Tasmanian-set gothic crime show The Gloaming, created and written by The Kettering Incident's Vicki Madden, who will produce...

The Dressmaker.

More than a year since it premiered at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, Jocelyn Moorhouse's The Dressmaker has finally been released in America, with Broad Green Pictures and Amazon rolling out a limited release over the weekend.

The adaptation of Rosalie Ham's novel opened on 39 screens in nine American cities, taking $180,522 in its first weekend, an average of $5,014..

"Amazon/Broadgreen are using a classic platform release for The Dressmaker," producer Sue Maslin told If..

"The film has received wildly varying reviews but the campaign has resulted in a very high awareness of the film and delivered a screen average [of] over $5,000 on the first weekend.".

"Jocelyn and I were present at numerous screenings in NY and La and the audience reactions were hugely animated, just like in Australia..

"This, together with our 66,000 stitched-on Fb followers, should drive the word of mouth effect when we open out...

The Dressmaker.

More than a year since it premiered at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, Jocelyn Moorhouse's The Dressmaker has finally been released in America, with Broad Green Pictures and Amazon rolling out a limited release over the weekend.

The adaptation of Rosalie Ham's novel opened on 39 screens in nine American cities, taking $180,522 in its first weekend, an average of $5,014..

"Amazon/Broadgreen are using a classic platform release for The Dressmaker," producer Sue Maslin told If..

"The film has received wildly varying reviews but the campaign has resulted in a very high awareness of the film and delivered a screen average [of] over $5,000 on the first weekend.".

"Jocelyn and I were present at numerous screenings in NY and La and the audience reactions were hugely animated, just like in Australia..

This together with our 66,000 stitched-on Fb followers should .drive the word of mouth effect when we open out...

Two music-themed films and a love story from The Rocket director Kim Mordaunt are among the 15 features to secure new development money from Screen Australia.

The Musician, produced by Brian Rosen and Su Armstrong, is about how Richard Goldner, a violinist who arrived in Australia from Vienna as a refugee, set up Musica Viva, one of the largest presenters of chamber music in the world.

Clara, which is being developed by producer Sue Maslin and writer/director Jocelyn Moorhouse, tells of the deep bonds between Clara Schumann, one of the foremost classical pianists of the Romantic era, her husband, the composer Richard Schumann, and their protégé Johannes Brahams – and that included a love triangle.

“Jocelyn has wanted to tell this story for years,” Maslin told ScreenDaily, adding that the film is set in Austria and Germany.

“It is a very international film, with great music and a story that’s little known.”

Maslin and Moorhouse...

Paul Henreid: Actor was ‘dependable’ leading man to Hollywood actresses Paul Henreid, best known as the man who wins Ingrid Bergman’s body but not her heart in Casablanca, is Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month of July 2013. TCM will be showing a couple of dozen movies featuring Henreid, who, though never a top star, was a "dependable" — i.e., unexciting but available — leading man to a number of top Hollywood actresses of the ’40s, among them Bette Davis, Ida Lupino, Olivia de Havilland, Eleanor Parker, Joan Bennett, and Katharine Hepburn. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of Paul Henreid movies to be shown on Turner Classic Movies in July consists of Warner Bros. productions that are frequently broadcast all year long, no matter who is TCM’s Star of the Month. Just as unfortunately, TCM will not present any of Henreid’s little-seen supporting performances of the ’30s, e.

Mary Evans Picture Library/Everett Mozart’s sister, Nannerl.

It’s hard to tell them apart, Wolfgang Mozart and the great composer’s sister Nannerl. Both had prominent noses, mischievous eyes, and a certain naiveté to their gaze. But there was a difference. Nannerl was a girl, and that decided which of these fabulous musical talents would be remembered. Until now.

While Wolfgang escaped to the Imperial capital in Vienna, Nannerl had to stay in provincial Salzburg, dutifully tending for their widower father,...

When Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was 20, and mostly known to audiences as a pianist, Robert Schumann basically proclaimed him the great hope of German music in an article entitled "New Paths." In those days, the general lament was that no symphonist had been able to measure up to the mighty example of Beethoven. He started composing what could have become his first symphony in 1854; he got cold feet and turned it into his Piano Concerto No. 1, which was premiered in 1859. In that same period, Brahms wrote two Serenades for orchestra -- seemingly to practice dealing with the challenges of those forces -- and his String Sextet No. 1, a fairly grand work for a chamber piece. In 1862 he sent to Clara Schumann (Robert's widow, whom he loved) an early version of the first movement of what he announced would be his First Symphony (it did not yet have its glorious introduction). A decade later,...

By Roger Friedman

HollywoodNews.com: Sting is a major rock star and Trudie Styler, his wife, is a political activist and movie producer with an acting background. So you don’t expect them to go all 19th century, but that’s what they did last night at Jazz at Lincoln Center. In the Allen Room, for a charity called the Culture Project and Music Unites, they performed their own version of an 1837 “Love Letters.”

With a background of the sun setting over Fifth Avenue almost on cue, Sting and Trudie performed their two hander, “Twin Spirits,” that’s based on the letters back and forth between composer Robert Schumann and his decade-younger pianist wife Clara Wieck. This time they had help from actor David Straithairn, who narrated, and Joshua Bell on violin, and singers Nathan Gunn and Camille Zamora.

The audience consisted of no less than Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Denise Rich,...