Gender in Media News

Our 2016 Global Symposiums on Gender in Media will be held in Mumbai on February 17 and Sao Paulo on March 8. The Mumbai Symposium is co-hosted by FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO), Mumbai Chapter, the women’s wing of FICCI and sponsored by ITVS. The Sao Paulo Symposium will be hosted by Google. The Institute will present new global research which explores the influence of film audiences in the UK, India, Nigeria, France and Brazil funded by the Oak Foundation. Read More…

Cate Blanchett, coming off her best actress nomination for the 1950s-set drama Carol, is in final negotiations to join Thor: Ragnarok, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. The move comes a little more than a week after the Marvel Studios project hired Stephany Folsom to work on the script. It is unclear what character Blanchett would play, but several sources say that Marvel has been on the hunt for a “bad-ass female.” Read More…

Geena Davis reflects on her iconic role in “Thelma & Louise.” Plus, what does she remember about George Clooney auditioning for Brad Pitt’s role? Watch Video…

Oscar winner Geena Davis shares the focus of “The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.” Why does Geena want to use media as a catalyst for gender equality? Watch Video…

A&E Networks CEO Nancy Dubuc is acutely aware of the gender imbalance in Hollywood — but rather than bemoan the inequality, she’s opted to do something about it. At The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment breakfast Wednesday morning, Dubuc and her team announced a partnership with the AFI Conservatory Directing Workshop for Women (DWW) to guarantee a job to every graduate of the Institute’s acclaimed program. The joint effort, which was unveiled from stage by AFI grad and Unreal co-creator Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, serves as part of Lifetime’s “Broad Focus” push, dedicated to cultivating and supporting women behind the camera. Read More…

Female directors helmed a mere 6.4% of the 376 movies released in 2013 and 2014, according to a new report by the Directors Guild of America. The DGA’s inaugural Feature Film Diversity Report also showed that minority directors comprised only 12.5% of the directors on those 376 films. Minority males represented 5.1% of the directors while minority females amounted to 1.3%. Read More…

“I think this year has been defined by conversations about women taking up leadership roles as directors, producers, screenwriters, and it’s really exciting that now it’s the main topic of conversation. The question now is where do we go from here?” Watch Video…

Streisand was criticized for having demanded too much control over the movie and, at the same time, suspected of having had to turn to established male filmmakers for help. That decades-old charge was recently recycled by Maureen Dowd in her New York Time Magazine article “The Women of Hollywood Speak Out.” Dowd wrote, “Men in Hollywood still joke that Barbra Streisand conferred over each frame of Yentl with everyone from Spielberg to her gardener.” Observing that male directors often routinely show their works-in-progress to each other, Streisand notes, “It seems that only when a woman shows her film to a male director, the assumption is she needs rescuing!” Read More…

Hollywomen.com is a new platform exploring the legacy, chronicling the present and anticipating the future of women and diversity in the film industry. It offers news, interviews, profiles, spotlights, historical perspectives & research, resources and dedicated tools for & about filmmakers. Read More…

“EWA’s evidence-based research indicates that measures need to be taken to ensure fair and proportionate support for women directors to compete in an unlevel playing field of male privilege. The unequal representation of women goes against the spirit of the Bill of Human Rights, European treaties and UNESCO’s Convention on Diversity of Cultural Expression. EWA calls for positive action by governments at European and national level to end censorship of women’s view on the world.” Read More…

Queen Latifah is returning to TV. The Oscar nominee and former Living Single a actress is set to star in Empire co-creator Lee Daniels’ untitled girl group pilot, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Written, created and directed by Daniels, the project centers on three young women who form a girl group with hopes of making it big in the industry, and the choices they face along the way to success and stardom. Read More…