Despite the glass-ceiling-smashing success of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, gender parity in the global film sector remains a distant goal. Re-Framing the Picture, a recent study from an international and multidisciplinary research team looking at the German, British and Canadian film industries, projects that, at the current rate of progress, true 50-50 equality in key creative positions won’t be reached until 2041 in Germany, 2085 in the U.K., and 2215 (!) in Canada. It’s not an optimistic forecast for the producers, managers, film executives and talents picked by THR as the most influential women in international cinema, but they continue to find new models to produce, finance and distribute movies that amplify diverse voices. More than ever, it’s their efforts that are required if the promise of a more representative and inclusive film industry is ever to be realized.
CEO, EbonyLife Media (Nigeria)
Africa’s production industry was hit this year by the news that Amazon Prime Video was getting out of the African originals business. But Abudu, who pioneered African media — first as a talk show host, then TV and film producer and now theater chain owner — has always found a way. Her most recent project is the short film Dust to Dreams, directed by Idris Elba, that tapped funding from the African Export Import Bank’s new $1 billion Creative Africa film fund. Abudu believes the international industry still struggles to embrace the full spectrum of diverse stories. “We need a systemic shift towards inclusion,” says Abudu, “recognizing that diverse storytelling isn’t just about representation; it’s about unlocking a wealth of untapped creative potential.”
Co-founders, Komplizen Film (Germany)
Ade and Jackowski’s Berlin-based Komplizen, which they run with producer/co-owner Jonas Dornbach, scored a local-language hit last year with Sonja Heiss’ When Will It Be Again Like It Never Was Before, which grossed $4.3 million at the German box office. Komplizen shines as a co-producer on high-end art house projects, from last year’s Cannes winner About Dry Grasses to Pablo Larraín’s upcoming Maria Callas biopic Maria, starring Angelina Jolie. Says Jackowski: “The biggest challenge is still to find courageous partners in financing — we need real partners in crime to create really original content; that always involves a certain risk.”
Producer, Film One Entertainment (Nigeria)
The Nigerian multihyphenate added politician to her long list of professions (actor, writer, director, producer) when she was picked as a running mate for the 2023 Lagos state gubernatorial elections. Akindele’s People’s Democratic Party lost the vote, but her day job has been going just fine: Her latest comedy, A Tribe Called Judah, which she of course wrote, directed and produced, in addition to playing the lead role, smashed box office records to become the highest-grossing Nigerian movie of all time, earning some $1.2 million theatrically.
Producer, Limerencia Films (Mexico)
Avilés acted and did almost every job imaginable on a film set before jumping in as a director and, with her boutique company Limerencia Films, producer on her critically acclaimed features The Chambermaid (2018) and Totem (2023), both of which scored U.S. distribution deals, with Kino Lorber and Janus Films, respectively. Both were chosen by Mexico to represent the country at the Oscars in the best international feature category. For this self-described control freak, maintaining creative autonomy is essential, but her early success should allow Avilés to use Limerencia to broaden her scope and to support the next generation of up-and-coming Mexican auteurs.
Head of Creative, Film4 (U.K.)
Since joining Film4 in 2022 as a senior commission executive, Bhula has overseen one of the division’s best runs in years, with a lineup that’s included such art house breakouts as Molly Manning Walker’s How to Have Sex and Oscar winners Poor Things and The Zone of Interest. Upcoming highlights include the Rebecca Lenkiewicz-directed Hot Milk with Vicky Krieps and Fiona Shaw.
Co-owner, Eon Productions (U.K.)
If she knows who the next James Bond will be, Broccoli isn’t telling. The producer has presided over Britain’s most valuable action franchise for three decades, successfully transitioning 007 into the modern age and smashing box office records along the way. When not dodging questions about the new Bond, Broccoli and Eon are busy backing fiercely independent cinema, like Chinonye Chukwu’s Till and the BAFTA-nominated Netflix sports documentary Rising Phoenix.
Founder, Heimatfilm (Germany)
Brokemper and her Cologne-based co-production boutique Heimatfilm have bounced back from the dark days of COVID to find success with Christoph Hochhäusler’s German transgender crime drama Till the End of the Night, Elene Naveriani’s Georgian drama Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry and the Austrian historical horror The Devil’s Bath. Coming up is Sophie Heldman’s Scottish drama Miss Pirie and Miss Woods, starring Charlie Murphy and Flora Nicholson. For Brokemper, who has remained staunchly independent amid tough market conditions, the biggest challenges facing the industry “are the same challenges that the world faces: keeping democracy, our artistic freedom and plurality alive.”
CEO, Indigo Film (Italy)
Still best known for her collaborations with Paolo Sorrentino, including the Oscar-winning The Great Beauty, Cima, through the company she co-founded with Nicola Giuliano in 2002, has been tearing it up on the festival scene, with Edoardo De Angelis’ Italian war drama Comandante, a Venice highlight, and Another End, Piero Messina’s sci-fi romance starring Gael García Bernal and Bérénice Bejo, which premiered in competition in Berlin. But critics have really gone wild for Indigo’s Italian TV drama The Bad Guy, a crime series that has been a breakout hit on Amazon Prime.
Artistic Adviser, TF1 Film Production (France)
As artistic adviser for TF1 Film, a job she began just over a year ago, de Lampugnani may not yet have had the chance to accumulate an impressive list of credits, but she wields influence as part of TF1 Film Production. The cinema production arm of the French commercial TV giant has a pivotal position within the indie industry as a key co-financier/co-producer of commercial productions with breakout potential, including such recent features as Luc Besson’s DogMan, French comic book adaptation Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom and Liam Neeson actioner Retribution.
CEO, Inicia Films (Spain)
Monaco-born, Barcelona-based Delpierre has built up her Inicia Films shingle by focusing on new, mostly female filmmakers from Spain’s linguistic minorities. The results have been impressive, with Carla Simón’s Catalan coming-of-age tale Summer 1993 winning the 2017 Berlin Golden Bear, Pilar Palomero’s Aragonese drama Motherhood taking last year’s Goya Award for best film, and Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s Basque feature 20,000 Species of Bees, about an 8-year-old transgender girl on a search for identity, winning Berlin’s best leading performance prize for its young star, Sofía Otero.
CEO, Gaumont (France)
It’s been 20 years since Dumas took over from her father, Nicolas Seydoux, as general director of Gaumont and seven since she became, through the family holding company Ciné Par, the majority shareholder of the world’s oldest film studio. In that time, Dumas has helped take Gaumont global, with international operations in L.A., the U.K. and Germany, and diversify it (back) into television, reactivating the dormant TV division. On the film side, Gaumont continues to move across quality art house (France’s Oscar contender The Taste of Things), broad-appeal family fare (Toby Genkel’s upcoming animated feature High in the Clouds, featuring music from Paul McCartney) and genre plays like Timo Tjahjanto’s horror thriller The Last Train to New York, a remake of the 2016 Korean zombie blockbuster Train to Busan.
Founder, Mer Film (Norway)
From her home base in Bergen, on Norway’s southwestern coast, Ekerhovd has honed a talent for cross-border co-productions — she won the Eurimage co-production prize at the European Film Awards in 2021 — and breakout local features. She is currently in production on Sentimental Value, the hotly-anticipated reunion between The Worst Person in the World director Joachim Trier and star Renate Reinsve, in which Reinsve plays a woman adjusting to the death of her mother and the sudden return of her screenwriter father.
CEO, Carrousel (France)
Gaget’s last release in France was Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron, — “a career accomplishment I am very proud of,” she says — but she’s had a number of executive positions at leading pan-European film groups Gaumont, Anton and Wild Bunch. She recently joined the newly founded Carrousel Studios, the European production group formed earlier this year by Lupin star Omar Sy, Fast X director Louis Leterrier and Midsommar producer Thomas Benski. Launched with backing from CAA Media Finance, Carrousel is being billed as an artists-first European studio that will focus on producing elevated genre fare for the European and global market. Her advice to young women entering the industry? “Work hard, be yourself and don’t be afraid to speak loudly.”
Exec VP Film, Working Title (U.K.)
The Working Title veteran has worked across the Bridget Jones franchise, including the upcoming Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. Though not set for release until 2025, the Michael Morris-directed sequel, executive produced by Granger, is already generating buzz. Granger also implemented the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group’s Global Writers Program in partnership with Working Title in 2023, which seeks candidates who bring multicultural and global perspectives to their screenwriting. “Coming out of COVID and into the writers and actors strikes has certainly been very challenging for all,” she says. “I’m glad that we’re starting to see [signs of improvement] now as we head into production again, and we can be excited about producing stories in a climate that feels positive and alive and well.”
CEO, Telepool (Germany)
Japanese-born, German-educated Higuchi-Zitzmann has been running Munich-based Telepool (owned by Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith’s Westbrook) for just over a year now, steering the group through the challenge of dual actors and writers strikes, which were a blow to the supply side of the German licensing and production giant. The veteran media exec tells newcomers to the business “to never give up if you believe in something, and always see diversity as an advantage and never as a disadvantage.” (Editors’ note: Since this story first appeared in the May 8 print issue, Telepool was sold and Yoko Higuchi-Zitzmann has announced leaving the company.)
Chair, British Film Institute (U.K.)
The creative director for Apple TV+ in Europe started off 2024 with a bang when she took on the high-visibility role as chair of the British Film Institute. With passion and connections, she has hit the ground running, applying her TV industry chops as former chief creative officer of Channel 4, controller of BBC One and director of programs at Channel 5. Hunt says she sees her role as championing British quality content and storytellers “on the world stage.”
Head of Films, Fabula (Chile)
As film head at Pablo Larraín and brother Juan de Dios Larraín’s production company — which recently renewed its first-look deal with Fremantle to develop a slate of original films and TV dramas — Jadue had a busy year, managing more than 10 features in development and two in production, as well as running the (successful) awards campaigns for Maite Alberdi’s Alzheimer’s documentary La Memoria Infinita and Pablo Larraín’s El Conde — both of which scored Oscar nominations. “Films are undergoing a transformation, diversifying not only in content, production, financial and distribution models, but in the way audiences are consuming them,” says Jadue. “Despite these changes, the essence of storytelling remains. Safeguarding creative freedom, putting out stories that can resonate with the audience, is crucial in navigating this evolving landscape.”
CEO and VP, Pathé (France)
As CEO of Pathé, Julienne-Camus helped steer the French exhibition giant through the existential crisis of COVID-19 and has overseen the digital transformation of the storied company, expanding its reach through acquisitions of the CineAlpes and Euroscoop film theater networks. Seydoux, vp and wife of Pathé president Jérôme Seydoux, made a lasting contribution to the world history of cinema with the creation, in 2006, of the Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé Foundation, which works to preserve and make free to the public Pathé’s cinema archive, which stretches back to the company’s founding in 1896.
Co-founder, Number 9 Films (U.K.)
Karlsen founded the film production company with Stephen Woolley in 2002. In 2019, they jointly received the BAFTA Award for outstanding contribution to British cinema. No wonder, given their indie successes such as Carol, The End of the Affair and their most recent hit, Living, starring Bill Nighy. “My advice to a woman starting today would be to find a production partner,” says Karlsen. “Someone who shares your taste in filmmaking and is there by your side to share the highs and lows of a volatile but incredibly rewarding career.”
Managing Director, Red Chillies Entertainment (India)
Ever since establishing Red Chillies Entertainment with her husband and Bollywood kingpin Shah Rukh Khan in 2002, Gauri Khan has been a major force in Indian entertainment. She has served as the lead producer on all of the 30-plus films Red Chillies has produced, including high-profile titles for Netflix like Bard of Blood (2019), Darlings (2022) and Bhakshak (2024).
VP Content for Asia, Netflix (South Korea)
One of Netflix’s first content exec hires in Asia, Kim has been a pillar of the streamer’s wildly successful local-language content strategy in the region since joining the company in 2016. Credited as the architect of Netflix’s content dominance in South Korea — she greenlit Squid Game as well as the company’s many popular Korean films — she recently turned her sights toward re-creating that success in Japan, Asia’s most valuable content market. Says Kim: “As an industry, we need to navigate having a business mindset while taking creative risks and making adventurous content that will entertain new audiences.”
President, Cannes Film Festival (Germany/France)
Being the first female president in Cannes festival history would likely be enough to make this list, but Knobloch earns her place on corporate achievement alone. The German-born exec was a top figure at Warners for years — when she left WarnerMedia in 2020, she was responsible for activities across France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Benelux territories. And before taking up the honorary Cannes post, she founded, together with billionaire François-Henri Pinault and banker Matthieu Pigasse, I2PO, the first-ever acquisition company in Europe focusing solely on the entertainment industry.
CEO, Barunson Entertainment (South Korea)
Choi took the helm of Barunson E&A just this February after joining the influential Korean production banner in 2021 and previously serving in key roles as managing director and COO. She arrived from CJ E&M, where she was a familiar face on the global film festival circuit as the powerhouse studio’s head of international sales, spearheading overseas distribution on major hits like Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden and Yoon Jong-bin’s The Spy Gone North. Since its launch in 1996, Barunson has been known as a trailblazer of Korean cinema, producing favorites from Bong, Kim Jee-woon and others. Under Choi, the company looks set to continue its pedigree with an upcoming slate that includes two forthcoming features from Bong, as well as projects from rising auteurs like Kim Sung-hoon (Ransomed, Kingdom) and Um Tae-hwa (Concrete Utopia). Upon her appointment in February, the executive signaled growing global ambitions for her outfit, saying: “Barunson E&A will continue to work with the leading filmmakers in Korea, creating compelling content while our international operations actively seek opportunities to board global projects with world-renowned and up-and-coming talent, placing no restrictions on format, genre and language.”
Deputy Director, Le Pacte (France)
Variety is the spice for Labadie, whose work at Le Pacte ranges from the art house drama of Nanni Moretti’s A Brighter Tomorrow, which premiered in competition in Cannes last year; to the family animated feature Kensuke’s Kingdom, from directors Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry; and Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s Spanish-language thriller The Beasts, named best foreign-language film at this year’s César Awards.
Vice Chairwoman, CJ (South Korea)
Arguably Asia’s most influential media tycoon, Lee has shaped Korean entertainment for a generation and recently set her sights on even greater global influence. After becoming a familiar face to Hollywood with her best picture Oscar win for Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, she led CJ to make a $100 million investment in David Ellison’s Skydance Media in 2020 and bought control of Endeavor Content the next year, renaming the company Fifth Season. “My lifelong mission has been to bridge different cultures and, by doing so, bring people together,” Lee says. “I’m thrilled that we will reach broader audiences worldwide with more engaging multicultural content.”
Founder, Big Bowl Entertainment (China)
After co-founding Big Bowl Entertainment in 2017 and producing several popular stage shows and TV projects, Ling wrote, directed and starred in two of China’s highest-grossing dramatic comedies of all time: Hi, Mom (2021), which earned $822 million, and YOLO, the biggest Chinese film of 2024 with just shy of $500 million.
Les Films de Pierre (France)
Luciani is a bit of a Cannes lucky charm. Last year Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, which she produced with David Thion, won the Palme d’Or, became a cross-over hit (earning $35 million worldwide) and topped its awards run with five Oscar nominations and a win for best original screenplay. Her French auteur stable also includes the fast-rising Léa Mysius, who worked with Luciani on her first two well-received features, Ava (2017) and The Five Devils (2022), and is back for more with her upcoming drama The Birthday Party.
Freelance Producer, Element Pictures (U.K.)
The Poland-born, London-based producer is known for such films as Sean Durkin’s second feature, The Nest, starring Jude Law and Carrie Coon, and, as a freelance producer for Ireland’s Element Pictures, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, which won the Golden Lion in Venice, five BAFTAs and four Oscars, including the best actress honor for star Emma Stone. Malipan has stayed busy, also working on Lanthimos’ latest, the Cannes-debuting Kinds of Kindness, featuring Stone, Jesse Plemons and Willem Dafoe.
CEO, StudioCanal (U.K./France)
The head of Vivendi-owned Canal+’s producer and distributor is focusing on developing franchises and moving them across platforms, including film, TV, gaming, advertising, publishing and music. “Being a global entertainment company gives us a unique position and a great playground to build IP,” she told MIPTV last year. No surprise that StudioCanal has launched a genre label focused on horror, thriller, sci-fi and action to add to such hit brands as Paddington.
Producers, Tempesta (Italy)
Jamonte does scouting and project development and Melissano handles the money at Italian production outfit Tempesta, one of the country’s most acclaimed boutiques, with a cadre of art house talents, including Alice Rohrwacher, director of The Wonders, Happy as Lazzaro and last year’s Cannes competition title La Chimera, featuring Challengers star Josh O’Connor. Tempesta knows how to spot talent, particularly such up-and-coming female directors as Chiara Bellosi and Margherita Vicario, directors of Berlinale entries Ordinary Justice and Gloria!, respectively.
Producers, La Selva Cine (Colombia)
Friends Mora and Abad co-founded La Selva Cine, combining their complementary talents to run one of Latin America’s most exciting production outfits. Mora has drama down, as director of San Sebastian award winners Killing Jesus (2017) and The Kings of the World (2022), the latter Colombia’s official Oscar entry. Abad has helmed multiple award- winning docs, including The Smiling Lombana (2018) and Carta a una Sombra (2015), while Torres brings the production know-how. In addition to her feature work for La Selva Cine, Torres has produced series including Amazon’s Mala Fortuna and Netflix’s Frontera Verde for Latin American outfit Dynamo.
Arcadia Motion Pictures (Spain)
Arcadia Motion Pictures pulled off one of the biggest surprises of this year’s awards season when its animated feature Robot Dreams beat out bigger-budgeted competition to secure an Oscar nomination. Arcadia’s executive producer/partner Tapia and general manager Morbin have shown their range over the past year, combining cartoon hijinks with an eclectic slate that also includes erotic thriller Burning Body for Netflix.
Founder, Greoh Studios (Nigeria)
Arguably the most artistically ambitious of a new generation of multihyphenate Nigerian producer-directors, Osiberu channeled her inner Scorsese to deliver elevated crime thriller Gangs of Lagos for Amazon. Her next feature, Everything Scatter, follows the stories of five young people whose lives intertwine over a day when street protests break out across Lagos.
Producer, Extreme Emotions (Poland)
Puszczynska has more Oscar films on her CV than many producers have credits, including the recent winner The Zone of Interest, which follows Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida (2013) and Cold War (2018). She’s reteaming with Pawlikowski on the thriller The Island, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara, and is in pre-production on Peter Webber’s upcoming biopic Irena Sendler, about the 2008 Nobel Prize nominee who saved 2,500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.
Co-CEO, House Productions (U.K.)
The BBC and Film4 veteran (Billy Elliot, Slumdog Millionaire) has run House Productions, owned by BBC Studios, since 2016, pushing it beyond TV into film production with such releases as Peter Jackson’s They Shall Not Grow Old, Sebastián Lelio’s The Wonder and Sean Durkin’s The Iron Claw. The Oscar and BAFTA wins for The Zone of Interest are its latest laurels. In its competition lineup this year, Cannes will screen the Ross-produced Bird, written and directed by Andrea Arnold and starring Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski.
CFO, Wrong Men (Belgium)
Slovakian-born Saboova cut her teeth in the indie film business as an international sales agent in Paris before moving to Belgium, where she worked for production services and financing group Umedia (a co-producer on everything from Molly Manning Walker’s How to Have Sex and Juliette Binoche starrer The Taste of Things to Martin Bourboulon’s two-part Three Musketeers epic). Now CFO at Belgium’s Wrong Men, Saboova continues to cast a wide net, aiming to produce big- and small-budget films, mainstream and art house, fiction and documentaries, and everything in between.
CEO, Haut et Court (France)
The veteran French film producer (The Lobster) is now dividing her attention between screens big and small, having set up collaborative producers group The Creatives, an association of European, Israeli and U.S. indie production companies, which, backed by a deal with Fremantle, have developed a slate of high-end TV series. Scotta’s contributions include the Apple TV+ sci-fi thriller Constellation with Noomi Rapace and the Tom Fontana/Scott Frank-created Monsieur Spade for AMC, which reimagines noir legend detective Sam Spade (Clive Owen) as an American expat living in the South of France in the early 1960s. But Scotta hasn’t abandoned cinema. She has several features in the works, including Simon Bouisson’s French social drama Drone and the U.K.-French co-production Sukkwan Island, which she calls her “biggest single professional challenge of last year.”
Chairwoman, Fantawild Animation
Shenzhen-based studio Fantawild Animation, led by chairwoman Shang, has earned the enviable — and highly lucrative — distinction of being a beloved staple of China’s Lunar New Year holiday, the country’s most important traditional family holiday and biggest annual box office period. At the start of the festive season every year, Fantawild releases the latest installment in its long-running Boonie Bearsanimated movie series — featuring the lovable duo Briar and Bramble facing new challenges in stopping Logger Vick from destroying their forest home — and every year, filmgoers show up in droves. In February, Fantawild unveiled its 10th title in the series, Boonie Bears: Time Twist, which earned $276 million. Whereas most franchises in China tend to fizzle after just two or three films, theBoonie Bearsseries has collectively brought in nearly $1.2 billion in ticket sales over the past decade.
“The audience always says that if they didn’t see the new Boonie Bearsmovie during the New Year holiday, it’s like something is missing,” says Shang.
Established in 1998, Fantawild got its start in the theme park business, creating China’s first generation of destination entertainment while also developing and producing theme park ride equipment for global export. Today, the company is China’s best-known national theme park brand, operating more than 35 large parks across the country. Shang joined Fantawild in 2002 and describes herself as one of its longest-serving executives. Among the company’s only bilingual staff in the early days, she began in the group’s international sales division, negotiating deals with overseas buyers of roller coasters. In 2008, as Fantawild’s parks business grew, the decision was made to develop original animated IP to populate the company’s attractions. Shang transitioned to the subsidiary as its first head of marketing, eventually rising to oversee the whole studio.
The characters that would become Boonie Bears first emerged as mere background players in the 2010 animated series Kung Fu Masters of the Zodiac. But Shang and her colleagues quickly recognized the bears’ potential. “Despite their limited screen time, they were incredibly endearing and left a profound impression on the audience,” she says. By 2014, Shang’s team had released its first feature film, Boonie Bears: To the Rescue!, which earned $41 million, doubling the record for China’s top-earning animation.
“Initially, Boonie Bears was seen as a family animation brand, mainly watched by children and their parents,” Shang says. “But over the years, the brand has successfully broken out of its original audience, attracting an increasing number of adult viewers who don’t even have kids.”
Shang attributes the studio’s long-running winning streak to a tireless competitive focus: “We have consistently set our sights on matching the production standards of top international companies, striving to elevate our production quality each year.” — Patrick Brzeski
CEO, Aurora Films (France)
Vincent and Paris-based Aurora Films have tapped a creative seam of East-West storytelling with a slate that includes Davy Chou’s Return to Seoul, a standout of Cannes’ 2022 Un Certain Regard section; Pawo Choyning Dorji’s Bhutan-set dramedy The Monk and the Gun, which premiered at Telluride last year, and Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir’s Mongolian coming-of-age drama City of Wind, a highlight of Venice’s Horizon sidebar last year, winning the section’s best actor honor for newcomer star Tergel Bold-Erdene.
Director of BBC Films (U.K.)
Since becoming director of BBC Film in 2022, Yates has commissioned and exec produced the likes of Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun, Aleem Khan’s After Love and Harry Macqueen’s Supernova, starring Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth. BBC Films has four titles in the Cannes lineup this year: Sandhya Suri’s Hindi-language Santosh, Rungano Nyoni’s On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, Ariane Labed’s September Says and Andrea Arnold’s Bird. “Protecting independent and theatrical filmmaking, and overcoming the gap between the cost and the value of these films” is the biggest challenge for the industry in the coming years, Yates says.
This story first appeared in the May 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe. In that issue, the CEO of Barunson Entertainment in South Korea was incorrectly identified as Kwak Sin-ae instead of Younghee Choi.
