#Inclusion
WGA Inclusion Report Card: There Is “Systemic Discrimination” in Hiring of TV Writers
The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) has issued an Inclusion Report Card for the 2017-2018 TV season, and it seems writers’ rooms are still struggling to make the grade when it comes to...
Niki Caro, Haifaa Al-Mansour, and More to Attend New Zealand’s Power of Inclusion Summit
Women in Film and Television International and the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) are tackling inclusion in the film industry. With support from the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and...
Submit Now: Amazon’s Inclusive All Voices Film Festival Competition
If you’re a U.S. filmmaker from an underrepresented community — or one who is dedicated to inclusion in film — this is for you. Amazon Prime Video is hosting the All Voices Film...
Time’s Up Now Accepting Applications for Who’s in the Room Mentorship Program
If you’re an assistant in the entertainment industry and looking to take the next step in your career, Time’s Up is here for you. A press release from the gender equality and inclusion...
Actress Mirirai Sithole Talks About Her New Play & Why She Considers Inclusive Projects the Norm
When it comes to working with women, actress Mirirai Sithole has been very fortunate. From playwrights Jocelyn Bioh and Ngozi Anyanwu to the gals behind “Broad City” and “Russian Doll,”...
Submit Now: Diversity in Cannes Short Film Showcase
It’s no secret that Cannes Film Festival would benefit from being more diverse and inclusive. Scheduled to be held May 20, the Diversity in Cannes Short Film Showcase is dedicated to...
Writer to Watch: “Insecure” Scribe Amy Aniobi
“It’s something that we really want to preserve — this idea that black women are worthy of love, worthy of true friendship, can achieve it together,” Amy Aniobi has said of...
Survey: 64% of Diverse TV Writers Have Encountered Discrimination on the Job
A new survey findings’ reveal that diverse writers are routinely isolated, tokenized, and mistreated in contemporary writers rooms. The Think Tank for Inclusion & Equity (TTIE) interviewed...
Jessica Frances Dukes On Portraying a Fictional Starlet in “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark”
Jessica Frances Dukes takes on the titular role in the revival “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark,” an aspiring actress working for a fading star during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Written by...
2019-20 Pilot Season: Jude Weng & Jessica Yu Make History, Uptick in Director Inclusion
This pilot season is one for the history books. Jude Weng and Jessica Yu have both booked directing gigs and, according to Deadline, are set to become the first Asian-American women to helm...
Paramount Launches New Dev/Green Light Process, Aims to Make Film Slate More Inclusive
Only a couple weeks after taking Time’s Up and the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative’s #4PercentChallenge — and promising to commit to a women-directed project in the next 18 months —...
Paul Feig’s Powderkeg Creating Diverse, Inclusive Writers’ Rooms with New Initiative
Powderkeg has launched its latest inclusive initiative. Paul Feig and Laura Fischer’s digital media production company is following up its incubator for women filmmakers with Break the Room...
You’re Invited: Join W&H at Berlinale 2019 for Talk About Women Creating Change in the Biz
If you’re attending the Berlin International Film Festival this year, then make sure to mark February 9 on your calendar. That day Women and Hollywood — along with Time’s Up,...
Apple Snags Global Rights to Minhal Baig’s Feature Debut “Hala”
“Hala” has found a home. Written and directed by Minhal Baig and based on her short of the same name, the coming-of-age story just premiered at Sundance. Apple scooped up worldwide rights...
Study: Sundance Boasts Impressive Pipeline of Women & POC Directors, But Still Has Work to Do
Sundance 2019 is in full swing but the Sundance Institute isn’t resting on its laurels. Far from it. The org released a study with the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, entitled...
Inclusive Film Programming Collective Launches at Sundance
Sundance 2019 is off to a great start. According to a press release, the fest saw the introduction of the Programmers of Colour Collective (POC2), a group of women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ film...
ICM’s Lorrie Bartlett Becomes First Black Board Member of a Major Talent Agency
ICM talent agent Lorrie Bartlett has made a historical career move. She has been brought on to her agency’s board of directors, the Los Angeles Times reports. Per ICM, this makes Bartlett the...
Writer to Watch: Marquita Robinson of “GLOW” and “You’re the Worst”
Think about the zeitgeist-y shows from the past five years or so. Whatever series pop into your head, chances are Marquita Robinson has worked on at least one of them. “Black-ish,”...
Guest Post: Hollywood, Resolve to Make 2019 the Year of Inclusive Hiring Targets
Guest Post by Gillian Thomas and Melissa Goodman It’s a new year, and that means it’s awards season — or more specifically, the season for a slew of award nomination announcements devoid...
The Year in Women and Hollywood
Dear Friends, This has been quite a year. The reckoning that began in October 2017 has continued to push the industry in ways no one could have ever imagined. The #MeToo and #TimesUp movements have...
Guest Post: How Making a Doc Series Helped Me Preserve My Identity
Guest Post by Oluwaseun Babalola Creative content, like film or television, is integral to identity and cultural preservation. Have you ever heard of “Cool Japan”? It’s a reference to...
Time’s Up to Support Rising Execs and Producers with New Mentorship Program
Time’s Up’s latest initiative is working to improve the entertainment industry’s executive and producer pipeline. A press release from the gender equality and inclusion coalition...
Issa Rae and Columbia Pictures Join Forces to Support Emerging Diverse Writers
Issa Rae’s latest project will help boost diverse, up-and-coming screenwriters. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the “Insecure” star’s ColorCreative has signed a...
Golden Globes Nominate Zero Women Directors. Again.
It seems another Time’s Up red carpet protest is in order. The Golden Globe nominations have been announced and, even for a Hollywood awards ceremony, they are very male and, in many...
Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY Releasing Lisa France Documentary “Roll With Me”
ARRAY has lined up its latest film release. Ava DuVernay’s independent distribution company will be screening “Roll With Me,” Lisa France’s doc about recovering addict and...
Sundance Institute Announces New Inclusive Filmmaking Fellowship, Names Inaugural Class
Sundance is continuing to up its inclusion game ahead of its 2019 festival. As previously reported, the fest has agreed to make its submissions data transparent and is working to ensure a more...
Sundance Unveils New Inclusion and Transparency Efforts Ahead of 2019 Fest
The Sundance Film Festival has received more than 14,200 submissions for its upcoming 2019 edition — a record high. According to a press release, the fest is ramping up its inclusion and...
Apply Now: NBC’s Female Forward and Emerging Director Programs
Heartened by the increasing number of women and people of color behind the camera in episodic TV? If you want to get in on the action, consider submitting to the 2019-20 classes of NBC’s...
Brenda Hampton Series About Teen on Autism Spectrum Lands Pilot Order from Disney Channel
Disney Channel wants to hang out with “The A Girl.” Deadline confirms the network has given a pilot order to Brenda Hampton’s single-cam comedy about two unlikely friends, one of...
DGA Report: Women-Directed Eps Up 14% in 2017-18, POC-Directed Eps Stagnant
The good news: women directed 25 percent of all TV episodes in the 2017-18 season and people of color helmed 24 percent, up from last year’s 21 and 22, respectively. The bad news: in terms of...
Quote of the Day: Jada Pinkett Smith on Ensuring #OscarsSoWhite Isn’t a Fad
Jada Pinkett Smith famously boycotted the 2016 Oscars — the year the ceremony was dubbed #OscarsSoWhite on account of its blindingly white nominees. Two years have passed, and while...
Guest Post: How I Sought to Improve Black Representation with My First Feature “Solace”
Guest Post by Tchaiko Omawale Being a Black female filmmaker, I carry the privilege and responsibility of creating the things I wish I had seen when I was growing up. My two favorite movie genres...
ReFrame Is Accepting TV Submissions for Gender Equality Stamp
Having already bestowed its stamp of approval to 34 films, ReFrame is now setting its sights on the television landscape. According to The Hollywood Reporter, ReFrame is asking for TV submissions for...
International Documentary Association Awards $850,000 to Journalistic Documentaries
Documentary filmmaking is all the more important in the era of “fake news.” So the fact that the International Documentary Association (IDA) has announced a cohort of 12 films that will...
Study: Women Wrote Only 21% of Reviews on 2015-17’s Top Films, POC Just 17%
A new study from Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative shows that, unfortunately, the severe underrepresentation of women critics and critics of color found in...
DGA Report: Women and POC First-Time TV Directors Made Gains in 2017-18 Season
Sometimes the fight to make the entertainment industry more inclusive can feel downright Sisyphean. Thankfully, that’s not always the case, as the Directors Guild of America’s (DGA)...
Female UK Playwrights Call for More Women-Written Plays to Be Commissioned, Included in Canon
Charlotte Jones, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Tanika Gupta, and more playwrights are calling time’s up on UK theater’s exclusion of women writers. According to The Stage, they are demanding...
“Crazy Rich Asians” & “The Wife” Among 22 Films to Receive ReFrame’s Gender Equality Stamp
ReFrame has bestowed its stamp of approval to 22 more films. Introduced earlier this summer, the stamp is given to films and TV projects that hire female-identifying individuals on both sides of the...
Quote of the Day: Amandla Stenberg on Refusing to Compromise Her Own Power
Amandla Stenberg broke out in 2012 with her supporting role in “The Hunger Games,” but the actress takes the lead in another dystopian YA adaptation in theaters now. She toplines Jennifer...
BBC America & Women’s Media Center Team Up to Increase Women’s Onscreen Representation
BBC America and Women’s Media Center (WMC) are working together to improve the media’s depictions of women. A press release has announced that the TV network and the feminist organization...
Quote of the Day: “Star Wars'” Kelly Marie Tran Refuses to Be Silenced by Online Harassment
More than two months after she left social media in the wake of racist and sexist trolling, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” star Kelly Marie Tran is speaking out about the experience. The...
Sarajevo Film Festival Signs 5050×2020 Pledge
The Sarajevo Film Festival has followed Cannes, Annecy, and Locarno’s lead and officially committed to gender equality among its filmmakers and leadership. Fest director Mirsad Purivatra...
Quote of the Day: “Crazy Rich Asians'” Awkwafina on the Power of Representation
“Representation starts both in front of and behind the camera,” Awkwafina tells Variety in a new interview. Asked what the industry can do to make improvements in representing Asians...
Trans & Nonbinary Communities Demand Better Representation in Open Letter, 47 Orgs Sign
Trans and nonbinary individuals — and their allies — are pushing Hollywood to tell more inclusive, authentic stories about their lives. In an open letter published in Variety, GLAAD and...
LA Film Fest’s Major Feature Competition Lineups Are Over 50 Percent Women-Directed
Film Independent’s LA Film Festival (LAFF) has announced its first batch of lineups, and the programs are cause for celebration. Of 24 features screening in major competition categories, 14 are...
Research: Hollywood Inclusion “Remains Unchanged”
“The rhetoric in Hollywood may be changing when it comes to inclusion, but the numbers are not,” according to a press release announcing the findings of a new study. The report hails...
Cheryl Boone Isaacs and Quincy Jones Working on Doc About the History of Black Hollywood
Former Academy prez Cheryl Boone Isaacs and music legend Quincy Jones are teaming up to share an important part of Hollywood history. The two are working on “American Film: The Black...
Kamil Oshundara Joins Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Prods. as Cultural Exec
Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions has made an unusual but very valuable hire. According to The Hollywood Reporter, activist and scholar Kamil Oshundara will serve as cultural executive at...
Sign Up Now: #TimesUp Creates a Database of Critics and Entertainment Reporters
#TimesUp is taking on the world of film criticism. “Together we aspire to bring together a broader collective of entertainment critics [and] writers, each of whom are dedicated to the art of...
Academy Invites 928 New Members, 49% Are Women and 38% POC
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited a record 928 people to join its ranks. As Variety reports, the Academy’s list of invitees has been growing steadily for three years....
Research: New DGA Study Shows Lack of Opportunity for Women and Minority Feature Directors
“From the largest studio tent poles to the smallest indie films, diversity among feature film directors remained low in 2017,” a press release announcing the findings of a comprehensive...