How Can Women Gain More Influence in Hollywood? A NY Times Forum Debate

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by Melissa Silverstein
August 15, 2012 10:09 AM
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Head on over to the NY Times Opinion forum for a debate I co-curated on how we can get more women into power positions in Hollywood.

Here's the overview:

Obituaries for Nora Ephron in June celebrated her achievements as a female screenwriter and film director in Hollywood, a kind of success that is still rare.

For the top 250 domestic films of 2011, only 18 percent of behind-the-camera positions, including producer and director, were held by women. Hollywood is still mostly men making movies for men.

Manohla Dargis recently said that one problem was Hollywood’s lack of faith in movies for women, “which paints women as fickle instead of reliable repeat customers.’’

How can more women achieve positions of power in Hollywood? Melissa Silverstein of Women and Hollywood helped curate this forum.

There are a great group of people who participated:

Susan Cartsonis (producer) : Finance, Track, Research and Promote

Martha Coolidge (director): Our Entire Belief System Must Change

Martha Lauzen (researcher): Hiring Mandates and Tax Incentives Would Help

Brenda Chapman (director): Stand Up for Yourself, and Mentor Others

Gina Prince-Bythewood (director): We Write, and Then We Fight

Ted Hope (producer, Executive Director of SF Film Society): Get With the Times

Cathy Shulman (producer and President of Women in Film): As Executives, Women Must Stop Assimilating

and my piece: Respect the Female Consumer

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