NYWIFT Blog

Diversity Wins: The Oscars this weekend proved historic on several fronts: Black Panther costume designer Ruth E. Carter (one of our first Designing Women honorees) and production designer Hannah Beachler became the first African-American women to win in their respective fields; Spike Lee and Alfonso Cuaron took home prizes for writing and directing respectively; women won in all short film categories; and three of the four winning actors were people of color. Progress. And I loved how much of the telecast was spoken in Spanish – the second most spoken language in the world!

Seen vs. Heard: Dr. Martha Lauzen’s latest It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World study reports the findings for the entire population of female characters (speaking characters, major characters and protagonists) featured in the top grossing films of 2018 – and there are some interesting statistics. While female protagonists rebounded last year, reaching a recent historic high, the percentages of females as speaking characters and major characters remained relatively stagnant. So, we are seeing more women…but not hearing them. Read the study.

Emma Speaks: Past NYWIFT Muse honoree Emma Thompson explained why she left a Skydance Media film once John Lasseter was hired: “I am well aware that centuries of entitlement to women’s bodies whether they like it or not is not going to change overnight. Or in a year. But I am also aware that if people who have spoken out – like me – do not take this sort of a stand then things are very unlikely to change at anything like the pace required to protect my daughter’s generation.”

Networking Tips: Harvard Business Review published an interesting study showing how male and female MBA candidates benefit from different types of networks. Women more than men need both wide and inner circles to succeeds, benefit from quality over quantity, and need the support of other women to succeed.