The entertainment industry is literally under the spotlight and, for that, it can either lead the way or take a lot down a pretty bad path. Let’s give room to some of the women and men that are fighting for equal pay and the chance to show everyone’s capabilities in a world that can reflect in so many other sectors and fields where discrimination of any kind is so palpable yet less out in the open.
Today we are going to focus on women’s empowerment, and for those who are more venal, in case you haven’t noticed, lead women in cinema whether they are in front of the camera, behind it or the ones writing the story and so on, do make money, a lot of it actually!
Let’s hope that the recent women march on the Cannes Film Festival’s croisette doesn’t just stay “something that happened one time” and let’s keep talking about all the initiatives and effort made by so many people, and why not, join them!
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Women’s Empowerment – Reese Witherspoon
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The Academy Award winner is not just a great actress, but she is also a kickass producer, she founded the media company “Hello Sunshine” to create and discover “content that celebrates women and puts them at the center of the story.” If the company name doesn’t ring a bell, think of its productions, like the movies “Wild” and “Gone Girl” nominated for a total of 3 Academy Awards or the series “Big Little Lies,” which won 8 Emmys last year.
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Women’s Empowerment – Cate Blanchett
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She made history, as president of the Jury, last May at the Cannes Film Festival, together with other 81 women when they marched on the croisette displaying a silent protest on the lack of female director in the industry.
“Women are not a minority in the world, yet the current state of our industry says otherwise. As women, we all face our own unique challenges, but we stand together on these stairs today as a symbol of our determination and commitment to progress. The stairs of our industry must be accessible to all. Let’s climb.”
The march up the steps of the Palais was organized by a new movement called 5050×2020, which calls for more gender equality and diversity in the French film industry.
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Women’s Empowerment – Ava Duvernay
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Speaking of making history, she’s been making history for a few years now. Here some of her firsts: the first African-American female director to have her film nominated for an Oscar (“Selma”), first woman to win the Director’s Prize at Sundance Film Festival (“Middle of Nowhere”) and she’s the first African-American female director to be nominated for a Golden Globe (“Selma”).
Through her work, she hopes to be an inspiration for the next generation of filmmakers, and of her latest work “A Wrinkle in Time” she said, “I just want them to see — black girls, little girls of all colors — to see themselves as the hero.”
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Women’s Empowerment – Benedict Cumberbatch
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The British actor has recently declared that he will refuse any kind of project where women don’t get equal pay: “Look at your quotas. Ask what women are being paid, and say: ‘If she’s not paid the same as the men, I’m not doing it.’”
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Women’s Empowerment – Michelle Obama
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We have come to know her inspirational work during the 8 years she spent at the White House as the First Lady, but now, together with husband Barack Obama, they are ready to take over the industry: they signed a deal with Netflix to produce TV Series, films, documentaries and docu-series.
On the subjects of their work, she said, “We always believed in the power of storytelling to inspire us, to make us think differently about the world around us, and to help us open our minds and hearts to others.”
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Women’s Empowerment – Patty Jenkins
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She broke down a huge wall when she became the first female director to direct a superhero movie, “Wonder Woman,” which eventually became the highest-grossing film directed by a woman.
Together with “Wonder Woman” actresses Gal Gadot and Lynda Carter, DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson, and U.N. Under-Secretary General Cristina Gallach, Jenkins appeared at the United Nations on October 21, 2016, the 75th anniversary of the first appearance of Wonder Woman, to mark the character’s designation by the United Nations as its “Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls.”
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Women’s Empowerment – Kristen Stewart
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Another step was taken at the most famous French Film Festival, and we should say a barefoot step: yes, because the American actress, member of the Jury at Cannes gave a kick in the butt of the strict dress code rule that requires women to wear high heels on the red carpet. She took them off in front of everyone just before climbing the stairs to the Palais; we can definitely call it a loud statement!
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Women’s Empowerment – Chiara Tilesi
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The Italian film producer is the founder of We Do It Together, a “nonprofit film Production Company created to finance and produce films, documentaries, TV and other forms of media, uniquely dedicated to the empowerment of women. We believe that we can create a movement, with women and men, with words and actions, that will change the utterly outdated and discriminatory paradigm that we see in media. And, by doing so, the marginalization of women worldwide. Our goal is to create media by women, about women, but for everyone.”
More on “We Do It Together” here.
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Women’s Empowerment – William H. Macy
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When last year his “Shameless” co-star Emmy Rossum refused to sign the renewal of the contract unless getting an equal pay, the actor stood by her side and said, “it’s a no-brainer, it’s just sort of obvious. Emmy is in most of the scenes, she works harder than anybody else, she’s a brilliant actress. She’s the glue of the cast.”
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Women’s Empowerment – Jessica Chastain
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She is a member of the advisory board at the just cited We Do It Together Production Company and, on her commitment for equal pay and opportunity she said, “I’m going to do anything I can to be there and support any organization that empowers and creates opportunities for women.”
Earlier this year, Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer revealed that it helped her earn five times the salary she originally asked for a role.
She has also partnered with Ralph Lauren Fragrances to launch its “Lead Like a Woman” campaign to encourage conversations about closing the leadership gap between men and women.
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Women’s Empowerment – Megan Ellison
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A quick trivia to get an idea of who she is if the name doesn’t sound familiar, in 2014 Ellison became the first woman and the fourth person to receive two Academy Award nominations for Best Picture in the same year, which she received for her work on “Her” and “American Hustle.”
She is the founder of Annapurna Pictures, and on her concept of art, she once said, “Art doesn’t belong to the few but to the many and I believe that the perspective we’re putting out in the world should not come from such a small subset of people. It’s a disservice to us all.”
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The list could go on and on, like Penelope Cruz that revealed that she got paid the same amount of her co-star Javier Bardem for their last film “Everybody Knows,” or the countless initiatives brought ahead by the Sundance Institute and Tribeca Film Institute. As Ava Duvernay said, we need to keep working and educate the younger generation so that we will be talking only about filmmakers and actors and the stories they tell, rather than what’s wrong on set and the same goes for every other field of work.
