Culture Shift
Annenberg Inclusion Initiative’s Annual Report Confirms 2023 Was Not the “Year of the Woman”
With Barbie becoming the highest grossing film of 2023, helmed by Greta Gerwig and focused on a diverse cast of women, some may have thought that its success reflected more diversity and inclusion in film that year. But, according to the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative’s 2023 annual report, that wasn’t the case. The study found that […]
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Hollywood’s First Asian American Star Anna May Wong Celebrated in L.A. Museum Show
Anna May Wong — born Wong Liu Tsong in Los Angeles on Jan. 3, 1905 — is widely recognized as Hollywood’s first Asian American movie star. A year before she died in 1961 from a heart attack at age 56, she joked that her epitaph should be, “I died a thousand deaths.” During her career, she’d […]
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Industry Moms are Fed Up and Now Fired Up About Showing Gun Safety Onscreen
It could have been any of the hundreds of mass shootings occurring in the United States each year, but it happened to be the one at Nashville’s Covenant School in March 2023 that prompted a group of industry moms to take action. “It hit very close to home. Our own kids were in preschool,” says […]
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‘Shogun’ Leads Gold List for Asian Pacific Television Honorees
After four years of highlighting Asian Pacific films for awards consideration, the Gold List is expanding to television projects for the first time. Shōgun leads the list, voted upon by members of the Gold House community. The feudal Japan-set show, whose breakout success prompted FX to order more seasons, propelling it from limited to drama […]
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Michelle Obama on the First Family’s Hollywood Pivot: “You’ve Got to Meet People Where They Are”
The attendees of CAA Amplify are accustomed to an annual lineup comprising their own high-wattage, high-impact peers, but one of this year’s speakers was truly peerless. Michelle Obama took the stage at the Ojai Valley Inn on Tuesday with Regina King for a conversation in which the former first lady reflected on her life since […]
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Lilly Wachowski’s Anarchists United Foundation Boards Circle Management’s Writers Discovery Fellowship as Partner (Exclusive)
Lilly Wachowski’s Anarchists United Foundation is boarding Circle Management + Production’s Writers Discovery Fellowship as a co-partner. The nonprofit organization, founded by the Matrix co-filmmaker during last summer’s strikes to address inequity in the entertainment industry, will financially support and help operate the program for unsigned TV writers from historically excluded backgrounds. Circle announced its […]
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Michelle Obama, Regina King Among Speakers at 2024 CAA Amplify
Michelle Obama will attend the 2024 CAA Amplify Summit, the agency’s annual convening of thought leaders of color across entertainment, media, sports, branding, technology, nonprofits and other sectors. Regina King, Dwyane Wade, Ricky Martin, Jon Batiste, Padma Lakshmi, Ego Nwodim, Cord Jefferson, Ashley Park, Misty Copeland, Roy Wood Jr., Lee Sung Jin, Demián Bichir, Colin […]
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IllumiNative Expands Leadership Team, Launches Production Company
IllumiNative founder Crystal Echo Hawk (Pawnee) is bringing on colleagues as her Native justice organization grows. Michael Johnson (Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota) is joining as president, Angel Charley (Pueblo of Laguna and Navajo Nation) as IllumiNative’s first-ever executive director and Jennifer Van der Heide as vice president of the new advocacy and engagement […]
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Inevitable Foundation Announces $55K Fellowship for Disabled Filmmakers
Inevitable Foundation is continuing its high-impact work for disabled creatives. The nonprofit, which since its founding in 2020 has launched a number of initiatives to support screenwriters with disabilities, announced its Visionary Fellowship today. The yearlong program will provide disabled filmmakers with everything they need to complete a short film on the way to making […]
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Universal Studio Group Partners With Roybal School for “USG University” Panel Series
Universal Studio Group is back with its USG University panel series for the fourth straight year. Presented in partnership with the Roybal Film and Television Magnet School, each virtual talk dives deep into the making of one scene from a USG-produced show: Apples Never Fall, Based on a True Story, Dr. Death, Girls5Eva, The Gilded […]
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Rideback Rise Taps Former Warner Bros. Exec as First-Ever CEO
Dan Lin’s nonprofit content accelerator for POC creators is continuing to grow. Rideback Rise has tapped Diana Mogollón, the founder and former head of Warner Bros.’ Stage 13 digital content studio, to serve as its first-ever CEO. She will take the reins from Rise founding executive director Sabrina Pourmand, who was hired alongside Tracey Bing […]
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Hollywood Commission Launches Online Tool to Report Workplace Misconduct
Across the two surveys on workplace abuse that the Hollywood Commission has conducted over the past five years, nearly all of the 10,000 industry workers who responded (93% in 2019-20, 90% in 2022-23) asked for the same thing: a technological tool to create a timestamped record for reporting misconduct. When Commission chair and president Anita […]
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