Let’s do the bad news first: After a few years of resounding talk about Hollywood equality, women comprised only 4 percent of directors of the top 100 films of 2016 (down from 5 percent last year) and, in those same films, represented only 29 percent of sole protagonist roles. And of the six major studios, only two, Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox, have a woman at the helm (Donna Langley and Stacey Snider, respectively). For an industry that so often and so loudly espouses progressive ideals, it is, in a word, a fail.
Look just beyond these numbers, however, and you’ll see a dazzling constellation of women who continue to push Hollywood into this millennium. The biggest cinematic universe in all the universe, Star Wars, is run by a woman, Kathleen Kennedy. DC films is finally giving the male-led Marvel Studios a run for its comic-book money thanks to Diane Nelson’s trust in Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot, who turned out one of the biggest U.S. movies of the year, Wonder Woman. Keep searching, and you’ll spy women ruling in marketing—four of the six studios have female executives at the top of their departments—and producing, which is increasingly a woman-dominated sector. Meanwhile, the indie film world is overflowing with women telling new kinds of stories, and even the A-est of A-list actresses are converting their Hollywood power into entrepreneurial gusto by launching female-courting brands. It may take more time than we’d like for a woman-led total eclipse, but the future—well, it really is bright.
The Tentpole Titans
Bringing Home The Box Office
Kathleen Kennedy, President, Lucasfilm
She worked a miracle in jolting the moribund Star Wars brand back to life, to the tune of more than $2 billion with 2015’s The Force Awakens and $1.1 billion with last year’s Rogue One. (Just one of many reasons she—along with Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Chastain, and Cicely Tyson, among others—is an ELLE Women in Hollywood honoree; for more, see more here.)
Diane Nelson, President, DC Entertainment
After a few rocky years (Man of Steel, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice), Wonder Woman took DC from also-ran to best in show: At press time, it was 2017’s second- highest-grossing movie, with a $410 million box office.
Patty Jenkins, Director, Wonder Woman
One of only six female directors to helm a $100 million live-action film (along with Ava DuVernay, Kathryn Bigelow, Lilly and Lana Wachowski, and Niki Caro), Jenkins smashed the glass ceiling and just kept climbing with Wonder Woman. For the sequel, she’ll reportedly get a $7- to $9-million- dollar paycheck, making her the highest-paid female director in Hollywood.
Gal Gadot, Actress, Wonder Woman
The Israeli-born charisma machine redefined what a leading caped wonder could be—and pushed the gender pay gap conversation forward when the entire internet got in her corner after learning she was paid a measly $300,000 base check for Wonder Woman. That number is sure to climb as she takes up the golden lasso in both this month’s DC ensemble hero flick, Justice League, and the Wonder Woman sequel in December 2019.
Daisy Ridley, Actress, Star Wars: The Force Awakens; The Last Jedi
With Star Wars, Ridley (who also stars in this month’s celeb-stacked Murder on the Orient Express) became a completely new model of sci-fi heroine—funny, inquisitive, emotional—and inspired legions of little girls (and boys!).
Ava DuVernay, Director, A Wrinkle in Time 
Since bursting into Hollywood’s consciousness with Selma, the ultra-versatile—and ultra-outspoken—DuVernay pumped out an Oscar-nominated Netflix doc (The 13th) and OWN’s critically adored TV drama, Queen Sugar. Now, like Jenkins, she’s in the $100 million budget club with her adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, starring Reese Witherspoon and Oprah.
The Legacies
Who just keep going—and winning
Meryl Streep, Actress 
With 20 Oscar nominations (and three wins), she’s America’s greatest living actor. And this season’s performance as legendary publisher Katharine Graham in Steven Spielberg’s Pentagon Papers drama should easily take the count to 21.
Dawn Hudson, CEO, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
After a turbulent couple of years—including the #oscarssowhite controversy—Hudson has kept the Academy on track. This year, she helped set a record with 774 new member invitees, 39 percent women and 30 percent people of color. She’s also spearheading the construction of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, opening in 2019.
Keri Putnam, Executive Director, Sundance Institute
With Sundance’s more than 350 year-round programs dedicated to developing next-gen filmmakers, Putnam has made it her job to lift up more young women writers and directors. What’s more, she’s a key player in ReFrame, which launched in 2015 with Women in Film Los Angeles to combat gender bias; and she recently started Sundance’s New Climate program, which highlights films about climate change and environmental protection.
The Trailblazers
Forging their own paths—and crushing the competition
Megan Ellison, Producer, Annapurna Pictures
The 2012 Oscar-nominated drama Zero Dark Thirty put Ellison on the map as a producer—and put all that family money (Dad is Oracle’s Larry Ellison) to good use. Her Annapurna Pictures has gone on to build a roster of acclaimed projects—from American Hustle to 20th Century Woman to this year’s Detroit—from top-tier directors (David O. Russell, Kathryn Bigelow) and starring A-list talent (Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper). A major TV division is reportedly coming soon.
Sheila Nevins, President, HBO Documentary Films 
After 30 years, more than 1,000 documentaries, and almost 90 major awards, Nevins is defending her hot-doc kingdom against new nonfiction players like Netflix. Next up is Marathon: The Patriots Day Bombing and a documentary about the Statue of Liberty.
Danielle Macdonald, Actress
Pattie Cake$ may have been a small Sundance indie, but the film built the kind of buzz—thanks to Macdonald’s hilarious, brave, layered performance as the title character—reserved for Oscar-courting studio films. Now she’s parlaying that fanfare into a starring role opposite Jennifer Aniston in next year’s Dumplin', about a girl entering the world of beauty pageants.
Brie Larson, Actress 
Since taking home her 2015 Best Actress Oscar, Larson has continued to focus on strong, intricate characters—like an intrepid war photographer in the critically acclaimed and moneymaking blockbuster Kong: Skull Island and Jeannette Walls in The Glass Castle. Now she’s making her directorial debut with 2018’s Unicorn Store, in which she also stars alongside Samuel L. Jackson. To boot: Larson is one of Hollywood’s most outspoken figures on hot-button women’s issues, most recently taking the lead in the investigation of sexual harassment allegations against two L.A. theater executives.
Niki Caro, Director
After a string of personal and impressive indies (Whale Rider, The Zoo Keeper's Wife), Caro makes a big-studio leap with Disney’s live-action Mulan and becomes the second woman in the studio’s history—and the sixth in the industry overall—to get a $100 million budget.
Sofia Coppola, Director
Coppola—who’s directed half a dozen films—became the first woman in 50 years to win the Cannes Film Festival’s Best Director prize for The Beguiled, starring (who else) Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning, and Nicole Kidman.
The Actresses
Becoming bankable brand expanders
Gwyneth Paltrow
She’s still popping up in Avengers movies, but the actress–turned–lifestyle guru’s newsletter-turned-website, Goop—which has raised more than $10 million in VC dough—has now become a bona fide movement with beauty products, fashion, supplements, and even this year’s (controversial) wellness summit, In Goop Health.
Jessica Alba
While she hasn’t totally ditched acting—she appears in El Camino Christmas later this year—she’s become arguably the most successful entrepreneur among Hollywood’s actor class, with her The Honest Company brand now valued at nearly $1 billion and a ubiquitous presence on market shelves, offering everything from housecleaning products to baby shampoo.
Reese Witherspoon
The Oscar-winning actress and producer—who had a major 2017 with HBO’s Big Little Lies and stars in Ava DuVernay’s A Wrinkle in Time—translated her Southern best-girlfriend image into the style space in 2015 with her clothing label, Draper James. She now sells the line both online (through fashion- world–approved retailers like Net-a-Porter) and in three brick-and-mortar stores.
The Movie Mavens
Holding down the studio corner offices
Donna Langley, Chairman, Universal Pictures
One of the industry’s few studio success stories, Langley’s Universal holds steady with the Fast & Furious franchise, the Fifty Shades sequels, Pitch Perfect, and, next year, another Jurassic Park.
Stacey Snider, Chair and CEO, 20th Century Fox Film
She previously sat atop Universal and DreamWorks; now at 20th Century Fox, Snider is allowing superhero stories both established (Logan) and newfangled (Deadpool) to take darker, R-rated turns—and raking in mountains of cash in the process.
Sue Kroll, President, Marketing and Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures
As one of the ruling troika at Warner Bros., Kroll— who took over in 2008 and has seen more than 50 films go to number one at the U.S. box office—managed multimillion- dollar budgets to woo both audiences and critics with three massive summer hits: Wonder Woman, Dunkirk, and It.
Nina Jacobson, Producer
In the decade since she left the top job at Disney, Jacobson has turned herself into a major force on both the big screen—with The Hunger Games franchise and next year’s Crazy Rich Asians and Richard Linklater’s Where'd You Go, Bernadette—and small (she executive-produced FX’s American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson).
The Boundary-Breakers
Busting through Hollywood’s confines
Haifaa Al-Mansour, Director
Originally from Saudi Arabia—where she frequently makes films that take a hard look at a regime with little to no respect for women—Al-Mansour is emerging as a new Tinseltown force as she turns her lens to Mary Shelley, which stars Elle Fanning as the mind behind Frankenstein.
Melissa McCarthy, Actress
After a big, Spice-y 2017, America’s top comedy star is teeing up three films for 2018, including Life of the Party, the second film (after 2016’s The Boss) she’s written with husband Ben Falcone.
Tiffany Haddish, Actress, Girls Trip
Girls Trip—which had the largest opening for a live-action comedy this year and is in talks for a sequel—was the breakout surprise of 2017, with Haddish serving as the flipped-out, foulmouthed rule-breaker who’s now on everyone’s must-cast list. In 2018 she stars in Kevin Hart’s next comedy, Night School.
Sophie Watts, President, STX Entertainment
The 32-year-old launched the studio’s international division, which now has a 50-film agreement in the global market; STX made megawaves at Cannes when it inked a nearly $50 million deal for the foreign rights to Scorsese’s next project, The Irishman. Watts also created a nonscripted TV division, which has 12 program development deals with multiple networks.
The Producing Prodigies
The new great creative forces
Cathy Schulman, Welle Entertainment
As head of Women in Film Los Angeles, she’s holding Hollywood’s feet to the fire—even as they try to change the subject every five minutes—with ReFrame, which urges executives to add women’s names to every list of possible creatives behind new projects.
Kimberly Steward, K Period Media
Her inaugural project, Manchester by the Sea, received a Best Picture Oscar nomination and saw its star, Casey Affleck, take home the trophy for Best Actor. On the horizon are six other projects in various stages of development.
Mary Parent, Vice Chairman of Worldwide Production, Legendary Entertainment
The Revenant (2015) reestablished her as a key producer; now she’s revamping male-centric movies—like Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island, and Pacific Rim—into full-blown, multi-installment franchises.
Adele Romanski, Independent Producer 
With only seven years’ experience, Romanski guided Moonlight to a Best Picture Oscar win, and she’s already teed up next year’s Under the Silver Lake, a neo-noir crime thriller starring Andrew Garfield and Riley Keough.
Kristie Macosko Krieger, Amblin Partners
As Steven Spielberg’s producer, Krieger is coming into a massive season, with the fanboy-bait Ready Player One—about a dystopian world where people escape their bleak lives via virtual reality—and the Oscar-bait The Post.
Dede Gardner, Plan B
Along with partners Brad Pitt and Jeremy Kleiner, Gardner ensures her company keeps the industry on its toes with both giant action spectacles (the World War Z films) and intimate human dramas (Moonlight).
The Client-List Commanders
Negotiating all things Hollywood
THE AGENTS
- Hylda Queally, Partner, CAA Clients: Daisy Ridley, Cate Blanchett, Jessica Chastain, Marion Cotillard
- Sharon Jackson/Michelle Bohan, Partners, WME Clients: Emma Stone, Cara Delevingne, Amy Adams
- Toni Howard, Partner, ICM Clients: Laverne Cox, Michael Keaton, Holly Hunter
- Tracey Jacobs/ Blair Kohan, Partners, UTA Clients: Taraji P. Henson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Seth Rogen
THE MANAGERS
- Suzan Bymel, Co–Founding Partner, Management 360 Clients: Anne Hathaway, Michelle Pfeiffer, Catherine Zeta-Jones
- Aleen Keshishian, Founder and CEO, Lighthouse Management & Media Clients: Jennifer Aniston, Paul Rudd, Gwyneth Paltrow
- Christie Smith, Partner/Manager, Rise Management Clients: Chris Pratt, Andy Samberg, Lizzy Caplan
THE LAWYERS
- Nina L. Shaw Clients: Ava DuVernay, Lupita Nyong’o
- Laura Wasser Clients: Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp
- Kimberley D. Harris As NBCUniversal’s EVP and general counsel, she helped the company acquire DreamWorks in just four months.
This article originally appears in the November 2017 issue of ELLE.
