#race
Danielle Nicolet Will Adapt “Black Karen” Short into Feature
Danielle Nicolet is writing and exec producing a feature adaptation of “Black Karen,” “The Flash” star’s 2022 short directed by “Harlem’s” Meagan Good....
Rosa Ruth Boesten’s SXSW Winner “Master of Light” Acquired by HBO Documentary Films
HBO Documentary Films has landed worldwide rights to “Master of Light,” which took home SXSW’s top non-fiction prize earlier this year. Deadline confirmed the news. Rosa Ruth...
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...
Pick of the Day: “Good Madam”
“So we should pretend not to be here even though we are?” This is what young Winnie (Kamvalethu Jonas Raziya) asks her mother, Tsidi (Chumisa Cosa), when she moves into her grandmother’s...
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...
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...
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 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: “Found”
Like Amanda Lipitz’s first documentary, “Step,” a portrait of a girls’ step dance team during their senior year at a Baltimore high school that took home a Special Jury Award for...
Trailer Watch: Tessa Thompson & Ruth Negga Are Both “Passing” for Something in Rebecca Hall’s Directorial Debut
“We’re all of us passing for something or other,” Tessa Thompson opines in the new trailer for “Passing.” An adaptation of Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel, Rebecca...
Pick of the Day: “Take Out Girl”
“Take Out Girl” is one of those films that really could’ve benefited from a bigger budget. That may sound like an insult, but it’s more of a lament. Starring and co-written by...
Study: Just Six of 2007-2019’s Top 1,300 Films Featured an Asian/Pacific Islander Woman Lead or Co-Lead
This year, Chloé Zhao became the most decorated filmmaker in a single awards season and made history as the first Asian woman to win the Best Director Oscar. Steven Yeun was the first Asian American...
Shatara Michelle Ford on Exploring How America “Consistently Fails Black Women” in #MeToo Drama “Test Pattern”
Shatara Michelle Ford is a Black American filmmaker born in rural Arkansas and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. Their work explores class, power, womanhood, identity, memory, perception, and race. Her...
New Study Concludes Swedish Film Industry Isn’t Reaching Full Diversity & Representation Potential
A new study released by the Swedish Film Institute, entitled “Which Women?,” has determined the Swedish film and TV industry can do a lot better when it comes to representation and...
Gabrielle Union Developing “New Money” Comedy Series at Showtime
Gabrielle Union isn’t letting “L.A.’s Finest’s” cancellation slow her down. The actress and producer just added another project to her packed slate. Variety reports that...
Trailer Watch: Gretchen Sorin and Ric Burns Explore What “Driving While Black” Means in America
Driving, mobility, travel — these are essential elements of the American identity. But they’re also ones that have historically been denied to Black Americans. “What it means to be...
Quote of the Day: Jurnee Smollett Calls Out Hollywood’s Fake Anti-Racism
“Lovecraft Country” sees Jurnee Smollett playing a young woman battling monsters both literal and figurative — including the horrors of Jim Crow America and nocturnal, flesh-eating...
Pick of the Day: “Lovecraft Country”
The supernatural, like everything else, informs and is influenced by systemic racism in “Lovecraft Country.” Misha Green’s new HBO series, developed from Matt Ruff’s novel of...
Janet Mock to Direct “Scandalous!” Pic About Kim Novak and Sammy Davis Jr.’s Relationship
Janet Mock will return to Old Hollywood with her next project. The “Hollywood” writer-director-producer will reunite with Jeremy Pope, the Netflix series’ newly-Emmy-nominated star,...
Quote of the Day: Gina Prince-Bythewood Calls on the Industry to “Pull Up” & Improve Representation
Like Mindy Kaling before her, Gina Prince-Bythewood is using the immortal words of Rihanna to deliver a point about the entertainment industry. In a guest column for Variety, the “Love &...
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...
Euzhan Palcy Missed Out on Directing Gigs Because Hollywood Found Her Ideas “Too Black”
Euzhan Palcy became the first black woman to direct a Hollywood studio film with 1989’s “A Dry White Season,” the story of an apolitical South African white man waking up to the...
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...
Quotes of the Day: Taraji P. Henson and Ellen Pompeo Get Candid About Race and Fair Pay
Taraji P. Henson and Ellen Pompeo work on two of the biggest shows on network TV. The respective “Empire” and “Grey’s Anatomy” stars are also outspoken advocates for...
Hot Docs 2019 Women Directors: Meet Laurence Mathieu-Leger – “Willie”
Laurence Mathieu-Leger is an award-winning filmmaker, editor, and producer. She specializes in documentary projects and has done work for The Guardian, Reuters, La Presse, Cosmo, and the United...
Report: Black Male Directors Made Major Gains in 2018, Number of Women Plateaued Again
The good news: The number of black directors working on top-grossing films reached a 12-year high in 2018. Sixteen black helmers, including “Black Panther’s” Ryan Coogler and...
DeWanda Wise on Black Queer History and Playing a Feminist Force in “Fireflies”
DeWanda Wise, best known for her role as Nola Darling in the Netflix series “She’s Gotta Have It,” can currently be found Off-Broadway in “Fireflies” at the Atlantic Theater Company. Set...
Lisa Takeuchi Cullen Writing Drama About Hawaiian Women for ABC, Viola Davis Producing
“Crazy Rich Asians” is breaking down barriers at the box office and on the small screen. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the commercial and critical hit directly influenced...
Quote of the Day: Playwright Young Jean Lee on Identity Politics and Privilege
In a recent New York Times profile, South Korean-born playwright Young Jean Lee emphasized, “Identity politics saved my life.” It’s what got her through coming of age in Pullman,...
Black Actresses Protest Industry Racism at Cannes
The 2018 Cannes Film Festival has seen another powerful women-led protest. Per AFP, 16 black and mixed-race actresses took to the red carpet Wednesday to stand up to to racism in the French film...