#Gender
TV Academy Members from Marginalized Groups Report Underrep, Exclusion, & Ineffective DEI Practices
A new report from the Television Academy lays bare how much work the industry has to do if it ever truly wants to be diverse, equitable, and inclusive. Based on the findings from a survey of 4,128 TV...
“O Womaniya!” Study: Women Hold Just 10 Percent of Senior Roles in Indian Film and TV
A new study into the state of female representation in the Indian film and TV sectors has found that women make up a very low number of behind-the-camera roles, such as heads of department (HODs) and...
WGA West Reports Significant Increases for Women & BIPOC Writers Since 2010, but White Men Still Dominate
From the rise of streaming and huge blockbuster franchises to the onset of the pandemic, a lot has changed for screenwriters since 2010. And, happily, some solid progress in inclusion and diversity...
Inclusion Initiative: Little Growth for Women Musical Artists in Last Decade But WOC Saw Spike in 2021
H.E.R., Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, and Doja Cat are among the most-nominated artists at this Sunday’s Grammy Awards. But in the music industry overall, women artists are severely...
Study: Women Made Up 34% of Speaking Roles in 2021’s Top Films, Majority of Those Characters Were White
Earlier this week, we reported on a study from Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative that delved into the number of women and people of color serving as leads and co-leads in...
SXSW 2022 Women Directors: Meet Camille Hardman – “Still Working 9 to 5”
Camille Hardman has produced documentaries and reality TV series in both her native Australia and Los Angeles. She started in TV in Sydney over 15 years ago, making animal and travel documentaries...
“CODA,” “Power of the Dog,” “Eternals,” & “Zola” Among Latest ReFrame Stamp Recipients
ReFrame is recognizing “Black Widow,” “CODA,” “The Power of the Dog,” “Nomadland,” and 24 other films for their gender-balanced casts and crews....
USC Annenberg Study: Women Film Directors Making Gains but Racial Disparities Persist
Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative have released their latest “Inclusion in the Director’s Chair” report and it offers a rare piece of pandemic-era good news:...
Sundance 2022 Women Directors: Meet Nina Menkes – “Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power”
Nina Menkes is a filmmaker whose works synthesize inner dream worlds with brutal, outer realities. Her work has been shown widely in major international film festivals, including Sundance, the...
Sundance 2022 Women Directors: Meet Mariama Diallo – “Master”
Mariama Diallo is a Brooklyn based writer-director. Her short film “Hair Wolf” premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, where it won The Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction....
Pick of the Day: “The Legend of the Underground”
Arriving on HBO as Pride Month comes to a close, Giselle Bailey and Nneka Onuorah’s documentary “The Legend of the Underground” follows a group of non-conformist Nigerian men in the...
Pick of the Day: “Born to Be”
Although it covers a very different topic, “Born to Be” reminds me of another doc that came out this year, “Aggie.” Like the latter’s protagonist, Agnes Gund,...
Cara Delevingne Will Explore Gender and Sexuality in Hulu/BBC Three Docuseries
Cara Delevingne has appeared in genre projects (“Suicide Squad,” “Carnival Row”), gritty dramas (“Her Smell”), and YA novel adaptations (“Paper Towns”)...
2020 Diversity Report: Women and POC Make Strides in Film, Remain Underrepresented
UCLA has released Part 1 of its annual Diversity Report, focusing on representation on both sides of the camera among the top 200 films released in 2018 and 2019. Like the 2019 report and the 2018...
40 Percent of Last Year’s Top Films Featured a Female Protagonist, New Study Finds
Turns out 2019 wasn’t just a historic year for women behind the scenes. Women also fared very well on-screen last year, according to the latest “It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World”...
Women of Color Led or Co-Led 11 of 2018’s Top 100 Films, According to New Research
As we’re all well aware, women are very much underrepresented on the big screen. However, according to new research from Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, there is...
Guest Post: Why I Decided to Cut All the Men Out of “Star Wars” and What It Showed Me
Guest Post by Rebecca Harrison Last week, I published some preliminary findings from my research about gender and race in “Star Wars.” I’ve been a life-long fan of the films and...
Berlinale 2018 Women Directors: Meet Katharina Mueckstein — “L’animale”
Katharina Mueckstein made her feature debut with 2013’s “Talea.” She is the co-founder of production company La Banda Film. “L’animale” will premiere at the 2018 Berlinale on...
Whitney Cummings’ “The Female Brain” Snagged by IFC
Whitney Cummings’ directorial debut has secured distribution. IFC Films scored the U.S. and Canadian rights to “The Female Brain,” Variety reports. Based on Louann Brizendine’s bestselling...
Taraji P. Henson to Topline “What Men Want”
Another gender-bending twist on a classic is headed our way. Female-led reboots of “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” and “Ocean’s Eleven” are in the works, and now comes word that “Empire”...
Megan Colligan Charges Gender Bias Upon Departure from Paramount Pictures
Megan Colligan has exited as Paramount Pictures’ worldwide president of marketing and distribution. And, according to reports from Deadline and Variety, her departure isn’t a run-of-the-mill...
Quote of the Day: Ava DuVernay Says Hollywood’s Exclusionary Hiring Is Intentional
By employing only women directors on “Queen Sugar” and via her film collective ARRAY, which spotlights work from women and people of color, Ava DuVernay has done plenty to fight against...
Horrible Misogyny in the Film World Is Surfacing, But Are We Really Surprised?
This week has been quite the shitshow in the film community. A lot of ugliness came to the surface via the Alamo Drafthouse and Cinefamily debacles, but how many women in the industry can really say...
Women Win Four Categories at Gender-Neutral VMAs
After a much-hyped shift to gender-neutral awards, women won or co-won four of the 15 competitive categories at last night’s 2017 VMAs — approximately 27 percent. Female artists were...
Study: Stereotypes About Gender, Race, and Age Still Abound in Film
With the success of convention-defying, female-led films like “Hidden Figures,” “Wonder Woman,” and “Girls Trip,” it’s easy to think Hollywood is finally moving beyond reductive...
Common Sense Media Unveils “Positive Gender Representations” Seal
Since 2003, Common Sense Media has suggested suitable children’s entertainment to parents and educators. In addition to rating TV series and movies based on age-appropriate content and the...
Actor Asia Kate Dillon Questions Emmys’ Gender Binary Acting Categories
Asia Kate Dillon, the breakout star of Showtime’s white collar crime drama, “Billions,” is generating serious awards buzz for their portrayal of Taylor Mason. Dillon also identifies as gender...
Watch: “Girls Lost” Mixes Gender, Adolescence, and Supernatural Powers
Growing up can often feel like you’re living in a fantasy realm, and Swedish director Alexandra-Therese Keining aims to capture that feeling in “Girls Lost.” Based on the controversial and...
“The Love Witch” Director Anna Biller Talks Gender Performance and Femme Fatales
Anna Biller’s 35mm cult feature “Viva” and her 16mm art-film shorts have screened at major film festivals and art spaces around the world. She is known for her use of classic and outdated film...
Reese Witherspoon and Robin Wright Team Up for New Series About First Ladies
Reese Witherspoon and Robin Wright are joining forces. Deadline reports that Witherspoon’s production company, Pacific Standard, and “Spotlight” producer Anonymous Content are collaborating on...
Quote of the Day: Ellen Burstyn on Educating Martin Scorsese About Women
Ellen Burstyn won an Oscar in 1975 for her role in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” but her award-winning performance may never have come into fruition if she hadn’t educated the film’s...
Katie Couric to Investigate the “Gender Revolution” in New Documentary
“Everything you wanted to know about gender but were afraid to ask.” That’s how Katie Couric is describing her latest documentary project, which was announced by National Geographic Channel...
Why Disney’s “Mulan” Still Matters
There’s a lot to discuss now that the Republican National Convention is in the rear view. We could talk neo-fascism, plagiarism, party mutiny, or the terrifying new levels of racism. Personally,...