Mounting frustration over the removal of several top female executives across the entertainment industry in recent weeks is expected to boil over and amp up the rhetoric coming out of this year’s Women in Film (WIF) Honors which takes place tomorrow evening at the Beverly Hilton.
This year’s honorees include actresses Adria Arjona, Salma Hayek Pinault and Gemma Chan along with filmmaker Beth de Araújo. Also being honored is Pam Abdy, the recently ousted co-head of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group who was let go shortly after Paramount officially absorbed Warner Bros. to create Skydance.
Cindy Holland was also let go from her role as streaming chief at Paramount to make way for HBO’s Casey Bloys, while Netflix’s former chief content officer Bela Bajaria was also fired and replaced by Peter Rice — the same week that Abdy was let go.
The removal of so many high powered execs has understandably prompted widespread distress within the industry’s ranks.
“It’s easy to excuse these firings as being part of this climate of consolidation and layoffs but on some level the industry also seems to be falling back on the institutional sexism that has long existed. This is not a coincidence,” said one top female executive.
Hayek Pinault will be honored with the Jane Fonda Humanitarian Award by Fonda herself, while Abdy will receive the inaugural Vanguard Award, which will be presented by Nancy Meyers.
