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With the dawning of the Time’s Up movement in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against megaproducer Harvey Weinstein, Hollywood has hit a major turning point. The industry, historically led by white men, can no longer survive without paying real attention to its diversity, equality, and inclusion problem. In the top 100 films of 2017, only 24 percent of protagonists were female (and 68 percent of those characters were white), and the numbers behind the scenes are staggeringly worse: Women accounted for just 8 percent of directors and a whopping 2 percent of cinematographers.
This year, the tide is beginning to turn, thanks to a growing cadre of forward-thinking power players, from studio executives to television showrunners to screenwriters. These pioneers are actively working to make the entertainment industry more equitable and hospitable to women, especially in technical areas like visual effects and cinematography. And it’s not about simply boosting the number of female directors or producers to get those stats up. Instead, tangible change comes from diversifying every aspect of storytelling, in front of and behind the camera, and in training and mentoring a new generation of women to lead the charge. The process of doing so gifts us all with better, more authentic, and more representative stories. It’s become clear over the past year that there’s some serious work yet to be done. This year’s Power List celebrates 12 women and gender-nonconforming folks who are making that change happen, at times quietly, from the inside out.
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Adele Lim
Screenwriter of Crazy Rich Asians
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Lim, a Malaysian screenwriter of Chinese descent, delivered a nuanced and necessary authenticity to the refreshingly diverse film Crazy Rich Asians, which no doubt helped the movie soar at the box office. Lim has long advocated for more representative story lines, and she currently mentors new writers through Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment’s New Writers Fellowship. Next up: a feature for Disney Animation Studios.
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Tanya Saracho
Creator/Showrunner/Executive Producer of Vida
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Saracho has filled the writers’ room of her Starz series Vida with a groundbreaking all-Latinx crew. For season two, she’ll go a step further, with Latina directors on all episodes. She’s also currently developing a new series for Starz called Brujas.
Lynwen Brennan
Executive Vice President and General Manager of Lucasfilm and President of Industrial Light & Magic
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Visual effects and computer engineering roles aren’t just for men, and Brennan has worked hard to improve the ratio of women to men in tech positions at Industrial Light & Magic. She’s also confirmed plans for a female director to take on a future Star Wars project.
Kristine Belson
President of Sony Pictures Animation
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Belson has brought a slew of original projects to the table at Sony Pictures Animation, including Vivo, with songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Promoting diversity has also been a key principle: She spearheaded December’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, from the creative minds of Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, which will deliver an African American and Puerto Rican incarnation of the iconic superhero.
Lynette Howell Taylor
Founder of 51 Entertainment
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At the helm of 51 Entertainment, Taylor unveiled Brie Larson’s directorial debut, Unicorn Store, last year and recently premiered the much-anticipated remake of A Star Is Born, starring Bradley Cooper and one of this month’s cover stars, Lady Gaga. Gender equality is at the heart of Taylor’s efforts—the company’s name is a nod to the fact that women make up the majority of the U.S. population— and she’s been especially supportive of new female filmmakers as part of the Sundance Institute’s Creative Producing Program.
Lena Waithe
Writer and Actress
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Waithe first caught our eye on Master of None (for which she scored an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series), and she’s held it ever since. She’s now developing a number of new projects, including Amazon’s horror anthology series Them, and writing and producing Queen & Slim, starring Daniel Kaluuya.
Fiona Walkinshaw
Global Managing Director of Film of Framestore
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Walkinshaw has been part of international creative studio Framestore for over 20 years, bringing with her an impressive background in VFX (she helped Blade Runner 2049 score an Oscar for Best Visual Effects earlier this year). She’s also a longtime champion of inclusivity, both at Framestore and in the industry overall.
Victoria Alonso
Executive Vice President of Physical Production for Marvel Studio
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With more than 20 Marvel flicks under her belt—including Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War—Alonso is now executive-producing next year’s Captain Marvel, the studio’s first female superhero epic. She also oversees postproduction and visual effects, drawing on her background as a VFX producer, and she’s been key to ensuring that Marvel recruits and hires more women behind the scenes.
Jill Soloway
Creator of Transparent
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As the award-winning creator of Amazon’s Transparent, Soloway has proved the need for more trans representation in storytelling. Soloway also cofounded 50/50 by 2020, which works for equity in Hollywood, and recently unveiled an essential new read titled She Wants It: Desire, Power, and Toppling the Patriarchy, reminding us that change has to come, both on- and offscreen.
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Rachel Morrison
Cinematographer
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First woman to step behind the camera lens for a Marvel superhero flick with Black Panther? Big. Even bigger: becoming the first female cinematographer nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar for Mudbound. In the days leading up to the birth of her daughter this past August, Morrison advocated for working mothers via social media from the set of Against All Enemies and at a commercial gig when she was eight-plus months pregnant. “I am not a superhero,” she wrote. “I am just going about my life doing the thing that I love for as long as I can.”
Amy Baer
President/Owner of Gidden Media and Board President of Women In Film
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Baer was elected board president of Women In Film earlier this year, a role that will allow her to build mentorship opportunities and create a stronger sense of community among women in entertainment. Baer, who has extensive experience in studio production, also launched and currently runs Gidden Media, the production company behind Mary Shelley (directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour, Saudi Arabia’s first female director and a 2017 ELLE Power Lister) and the upcoming film Brian Banks.
Ava DuVernay
Director
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As a writer, director, producer, and film distributor, DuVernay has been instrumental in bringing diverse characters and stories to the screen—it’s no wonder she’s made this list four years in a row (and counting). With Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time, DuVernay became the first African American woman to direct a film with a $100 million–plus budget, and she’s broken ground with her TV series Queen Sugar by hiring 26 female directors over three seasons. Up next: DuVernay’s on board for New Gods and the crime drama series Central Park Five, a collab with Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films (out in 2019).
This article originally appeared in the November 2018 issue of ELLE.
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