News Archive
Geena Davis takes a bow at the Women and Leadership conference
Geena Davis, Academy Award-winning actor and founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, made a pit stop in Boise on Thursday. Davis was one of the keynote speakers at the Andrus Center’s Women and Leadership event held at Boise State University. More than 1,000 attended the sold-out event. The Jordan Ballroom holds 900, but another room was opened up for the spillover — and spellbound — crowd. Davis spoke for about 45 minutes, covering a wide range of topics from the institute she founded to her Hollywood glamour. She became “passionately interested” in promoting gender parity after noting disparity in 2004 when she began watching movies and television shows with her daughter. “All the heroes were the male actors — and the ratio was way off,” she said. Read More…
The Documentary ‘This Changes Everything’ Explains Why Gender Equality STILL Hasn’t Happened In Hollywood
We hear it every time a movie that’s not predominantly about white men makes a lot of money at the box office: this is going to change everything. But while films like Thelma & Louise, Black Panther, and Hidden Figures have come and gone over the years, the output of Hollywood has yet to significantly shift. So the title of Tom Donahue’s and production studio CreativeChaos vmg’s documentary This Changes Everything isn’t a self-referential pat on the back — it’s an ironic reference to the film industry’s ongoing lack of parity. The director partnered with The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media to make the film, which paints an impressively full picture of how Hollywood’s gender imbalance is sustained and also how it reverberates throughout the culture. Davis herself serves as an Executive Producer, and during a dinner celebrating the movie hosted by producing partner Lyft during the Toronto International Film Festival, the actor and activist was realistic about the current state of things. Read More…
Why Geena Davis Thinks She’ll Have Succeeded As a Mother If None of Her Children Become Actors
Sure, she’s been out of the Hollywood spotlight for the past few years, but that doesn’t mean that Geena Davis — one of the most prolific actors of her generation — has been taking it easy. Following starring roles in classics like Thelma & Louise and A League of Their Own, through which she established herself as a feminist icon, the actress has taken a turn behind the camera. Davis is an executive producer for the recently released documentary This Changes Everything, which highlights the lack of female and minority representation in Hollywood. The film’s title, meant to bear a dose of irony, speaks to the media commentary surrounding every hopeful gain for women in the industry. Read More…
Geena Davis Knows Women Are Good for Hollywood’s Bottom Line. So What Gives?
Perhaps the set of Stuart Little isn’t where feminists expected to battle gender norms, but Geena Davis is the happiest warrior. Trust that she will open a frontline when she sees one. In the movie, Davis is Mrs. Eleanor Little, mother to George Little and Stuart Little, the mouse-son the family decides to take in. Once, between takes, Davis watched one of the second-unit directors line up extras for a scene in Central Park. George Little is meant to enter a boat race, and he needs some competition. So “[the director] found a little boy and gave him a remote control and had him sit on the edge of the water,” Davis recalls. “Then he found a little girl to come and stand behind him as his cheerleader.” Over and over, the pattern repeated: boy, contender; girl, admirer. It took Davis a second, and then it struck her: “Oh, wait a minute—we could do something different here.” She approached the director to make her case. She wanted an equal split, with both genders in both roles. Read More…
Geena Davis Says Fox ‘Reacted Appropriately’ by Cutting ‘The Predator’ Scene
The film explores the insidious and systemic sexism in Hollywood through the voices of celebrities like Davis, Meryl Streep, Sandra Oh, Jessica Chastain, and many other ambassadors of the #TimesUp movement. Its premiere is particularly timely, as just this week, Olivia Munn outed Fox and “The Predator” director Shane Black for casting Steven Wilder Striegel, a registered sex offender, in the film without the cast and crew’s knowledge. Davis, a longtime champion of women’s rights who founded the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, agreed that cutting the scene was the right move. “I think they reacted appropriately,” she said. “I think that was an unfortunate circumstance.” Davis said that she’s felt scared to speak up on sets before. Read More…
Geena Davis talks gender equality, says women are ‘encouraged to finally see some movement’
“Thelma and Louise” icon Geena Davis is “encouraged” that she’s seen more females in lead roles lately. “There’s lots of progress that can be made in our industry, but it’s encouraging to see some things changing and getting better,” Davis, 62, said at a panel titled “Funny Ladies: Serious Business” on Tuesday in Los Angeles. “In fact, we did a study of 100 top family films in 2017 – we found that female leads in family films have doubled between 2014 and 2017. Since these numbers have been stagnant for, like, ever, we’re encouraged to finally see some movement.” Read More…
Long-time warrior for women’s rights, Geena Davis finally sees a ‘tipping point’
Who among us has not evoked Thelma and Louise while on a road trip, or out at a bar, or on some other wild adventure? If you are of a certain generation, surely you have Thelma and Louise’d with a best girlfriend at some point. Driving through a desert with a good friend recently, I started to wonder: With the rise of #MeToo and #TimesUp, would Thelma & Louise still have to come to that shocker of an ending? Could the women not have found some other way out – or perhaps been able to extricate themselves from the circumstances that sent them on that dusty crime spree to begin with? Sometimes the universe (or your job) hands you an unexpected opportunity to explore your possibly hare-brained theory. On Friday, one of the film’s co-stars, Geena Davis, was in Vancouver to speak at the Whistler Film Festival’s Women on Top series – an initiative formed around the idea of bringing gender equality to film. Read More…
Institute CEO Madeline Di Nonno honored at WIF Awards
On Wednesday, June 13th, Women In Film, Los Angeles (WIF) celebrated outstanding women in the entertainment industry with the 2018 Crystal + Lucy Awards presented by sponsors Max Mara, Lancôme and Lexus. The evening, themed “Ignited,” raised funds and awareness for Women In Film, LA and its many educational and philanthropic programs, and its advocacy for gender parity for women throughout the industry. The 2018 Crystal + Lucy Award honorees included the following: Brie Larson with The Crystal Award for Excellence in Film presented to her by actress and friend Jessie Ennis; Channing Dungey with The Lucy Award for Excellence in Television presented to her by actress Ellen Pompeo. he evening also celebrated Women In Film, Los Angeles’ 45th Anniversary and recognized the leaders of the gender parity movement in Hollywood with the powerful “45 Years of Advocacy Celebration” segment presented by Oscar-winning actress Frances McDormand. Dr. Stacy L. Smith (Founder and Director, Annenberg Inclusion Initiative) accepted the honor on behalf of the 22 leaders from the past and present that attended. The group included Allison Anders (Filmmaker), Barbara Boyle (Film Producer), Madeline Di Nonno (The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media CEO), and others. Read More…
Watch Brie Larson’s Speech Calling for More Critics of Color
At the Crystal + Lucy Awards, the actress announced that the Sundance Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival have pledged 20 percent of their press credentials to minorities to better reflect America. Larson was on hand to accept the Crystal Award for Excellence in Film Wednesday night at the Beverly Hilton when she dedicated her speech discussing the recent “Critic’s Choice” study, published by USC Annenberg on Monday. Citing the study, Larson said, “Of the 100 highest-grossing movies in 2017, less than a quarter of the critics were white women, less than ten percent were underrepresented men, and only 2.5 percent were women of color.” Madeline Di Nonno, CEO of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, challenged Hollywood’s inclusion of women beyond race and gender-identification. “But what about people with disabilities? It’s really about intersectionality,” she said. “When people think about diversity and inclusion, they forget gender and they forget that people can be a little bit of everything.” Read More…
Canon Club: Fireside Chat with Bill Mechanic and Madeline DiNonno
Join us to hear Bill Mechanic, Academy Award-nominated producer, former studio chief and architect of Walt Disney Studios’ groundbreaking home entertainment operation, in conversation with Madeline Di Nonno, CEO of the Geena Davis Institue on Gender in Media. Through Pandemonium Films, Mechanic most recently produced Academy Award nominees Hacksaw Ridge and Coraline. He previously was Chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment for seven years and earlier built Walt Disney Studios’ groundbreaking home entertainment operation. Read More…
