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Canon Club: Issue No. 6
Welcome to the sixth issue of DEG’s Canon Club Newsletter!
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DEG Adds Canon Club Advisor to Board of Directors | |
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DEG’s Canon Club, which strives to be a place where women at all levels and in all sectors of the digital entertainment business are welcome to share knowledge and build their business networks, will hold a Special Advisor seat on the organization’s Board of Directors for the first time beginning with the current fiscal year (2024-25). Canon Club Co-Chair Meri Hassouni, SVP Global Business Development & Client Services at Giant Worldwide, will be the first Canon Club representative on the Board.
The Special Board Advisor role is non-voting, and is intended to provide diversity of input from DEG members.
“Board leadership and I are happy to welcome Meri to this new Special Advisor role as a representative of Canon Club,” said Amy Jo Smith, President & CEO of DEG. “Through Canon Club, DEG is dedicated to helping cultivate a vibrant community for women in entertainment and technology, and Meri is the perfect advocate to bring this perspective to the Board.”
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Congratulations to the women who received EnTech Awards at
this year's in-person ceremony!
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This year's prestigious Hall of Fame Award went to Universal Pictures' Annie Chang, an industry veteran responsible for shaping multiple technologies and strategies. | |
NBCUniversal's Andrea Riehle took home the Localization Trailblazer Award. | |
Sherry Wong of Universal Pictures (c.) accepted the Emerging Technology Award on behalf of the Kung Fu Panda Apple Vision Pro Project Teams, along with NBCUniversal's Greg Reed (at mic) and Comcast's Greg Kimatov (r.). | |
Amazon Studios' Patty Compagno (c.) and Premiere Digital's Tanya Razo (r.) of Dynamic Artwork nabbed the Technology Innovation in Distribution Award, along with Lionsgate's Mark Sgriccia (at mic). | |
Daniella Ruotolo of Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology received the Rising Star Award. | |
All photos by Skyler Barberio | |
Michele Cera Lachoff of Deluxe (l.) and John Sheehe of Max (r.) accepted the People's Choice Award on behalf of the Max Product Team and Deluxe ASL Team's "Barbie: ASL." | |
Congratulations to women in the DEG community who have recently joined new companies or been promoted to prominent positions. | |
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Fox Corporation
Katrina Cukaj
EVP, Ad Sales and Portfolio Marketing
Formerly at WarnerMedia
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Did a female executive recently join or receive a promotion at your company, or were they honored for any industry awards?
Email cayla@degonline.org to recognize them in our next newsletter!
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“Why am I not seeing any writers who are bringing a different perspective? And that’s what made me think.”
-Reese Witherspoon, on her early motivations to foray into producing, in spite of having little experience.
Read more
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The Most Powerful Women in International Television
The Hollywood Reporter
Layoffs at nearly every studio and major production company have highlighted the overall contraction in the market and signal a broad shift in priorities away from growth at all costs to a laser focus on the bottom line. Against this backdrop, the executives on this list have had to find ways to do more with less, to restructure their business operations, question long-established practices, and create new ways forward — all without abandoning the core principles of equity and inclusion that got them this far. Read more
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‘Wheel Of Fortune’ Showrunner Bellamie Blackstone Is Using Her Magic Touch To Keep The Venerable Game Show Spinning
Deadline
When Sony was looking for someone to replace Mike Richards as EP of WoF and Celebrity WoF in 2022, scores of applicants applied for the plum job of running one of the most successful syndicated game shows in TV history. Few, however, were women, recalls Sony Game Shows president Suzanne Prete. “I want every voice represented because every voice listens and watches our shows,” says Prete. “The fact that Bellamie is a woman is a plus. I hired her because she is the right person. She has experience in comedy as well as game shows. And she was born into production. She grew up in live entertainment.” Read more
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Malala Yousafzai on Why Filmmaking Has Become Essential to Her Activism
The Hollywood Reporter
With Extracurricular, the name of which riffs off of Yousafzai’s mission to educate, the activist says she took a very practical approach to entering the industry. “When I started working on this production company, I was looking at different projects that were happening and how I could begin by supporting them as an executive producer,” she recalled. “Joyland stood out because it was written and directed by this amazing Pakistani director [Saim Sadiq], and it was telling a very important story in a very powerful way. It was, I think, the first Pakistani film to be shortlisted for the Oscars as well. I’m so honored to be part of it, and it won the Independent Spirit Award as well.” Read more
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Amazon Is Doubling Down on Its Original Film Business — And Eyeing More Movies For Women
The Hollywood Reporter
Probed on the kind of demographic Amazon wants to hone in on and cultivate off the back of their service data analysis, Chris Ottinger, president of worldwide distribution and acquisitions at MGM says: “Younger and female audiences.” He names The Idea of You, which released in March with Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine, as a huge indicator of the ripe soil in female audiences and female-led stories. Read more
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How Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria Was Born to Disrupt the Status Quo
Variety
Today, Bajaria ranks high among the world’s most influential media executives. She sits atop a pyramid of hundreds of programming executives in 27 countries who are tasked with greenlighting series and movies in 50 languages. Bajaria’s range of experience in programming and production has led her to a C-suite role at Netflix with unprecedented global scope and financial resources to commission movies and TV shows. No content platform has ever served up the volume of programs in a multitude of languages that Netflix has in recent years. So Bajaria is in uncharted waters, and she’s loving it. Read more
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Nasdaq’s CEO Predicts a Major Sports Deal Boom
Bloomberg ($)
All of that cash likely means more business for Nasdaq as the need for liquidity builds in sports, Friedman says. Teams like Major League Baseball’s Atlanta Braves already are traded on the Nasdaq, as is racing series Formula One. More are sure to follow. “I think you’re going to see teams in multiple sports being public,” Friedman says. “You’re going to see changes in the structures of these leagues and organizations so it unlocks more value and brings more professional people into the mix.” Read more
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How Busy Philipps Turned to QVC to Find Her Voice in Late-Night TV: ‘They’re Gonna Wanna Buy This Stuff’
Variety
“Unfortunately it doesn’t seem that there are too many chairs at the table for women in late-night. So we went to the place that sold the chairs and the table, which ultimately was our plan,” Philipps said in the conversation moderated by Cynthia Littleton, Variety co-Editor in Chief. “Busy This Week” plays like a traditional talk-variety show, with celebrity guests dishing with Philipps and her fellow executive producer and co-host, Caissie St. Onge. The final batch of Season 1 episodes will begin airing Nov. 6. Read more
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Seine Pictures Shines a Spotlight on First-Time and Female Directors: ‘We’re Being a Part of This Positive Change’
TheWrap Pro ($)
Seine Pictures turned 12 this year, and to mark the occasion, the upstart, Latino-led production company released three films in 2024: the 2024 Cinema for Peace Award-winning documentary, “Invisible Nation (pictured)”; “La Cocina,” starring Rooney Mara and Raul Briones, which premiered in North America at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival in June; and “Mistura,” an original period drama from Ricardo de Montreuil set in company founder Ivan Orlic’s home country. Read more
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For Hallie Meyers-Shyer, Filmmaking Has Always Been a Job for a Woman
IndieWire
When Hallie Meyers-Shyer thinks about directors, she thinks about women — women like herself, or like her own mother, Nancy Meyers. When asked about the continued conversation around nepotism in Hollywood — or, more pointedly, the rise of second- and third-generation filmmakers in the current landscape — she thinks about her mother, too. “I have a different experience than other people, because I think a lot of the people [in this conversation], their fathers are filmmakers,” Meyers-Shyer said during a recent interview with IndieWire. Read more
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Lilly Ledbetter, Whose Fight for Equal Pay Changed U.S. Law, Dies at 86
New York Times ($)
Ms. Ledbetter came to fully embrace her role in the women’s rights movement She became a public speaker, addressing the 2008 and 2012 Democratic National Conventions; worked closely with the National Women’s Law Center; and wrote a memoir, “Grace and Grit.” A movie inspired by her life, “Lilly,” premiered at the Hamptons Film Festival this month, with Patricia Clarkson in the title role. “Lilly Ledbetter never set out to be a trailblazer or a household name,” Mr. Obama said in a statement on Sunday. “She just wanted to be paid the same as a man for her hard work.” Read more
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How the ‘Relocation Penalty’ Hurts Women’s Pay
Wall Street Journal ($)
What the researchers found was that some of the inequality that exists between men and women are the result of decisions that are made within the home, and it's not solely workplace bias, which absolutely occurs and can hurt women's careers and has kept women back for quite a long time. It's also some of the decisions that people make at the dinner table about what career move to make that also may contribute to women getting the short end of the stick. And Labor Department data shows that in 2023, women earned 84 cents for every dollar that a man earned. Read more and listen to the full podcast
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The Untapped Potential Of Women In Cybersecurity
Forbes ($)
As of 2022, women make up only 25% of the cybersecurity workforce. This statistic reflects a broader gender imbalance in STEM fields and highlights a critical talent gap that is expected to grow, with millions of job vacancies anticipated by 2025. This shortage presents a unique opportunity for women to enter a field that offers substantial career stability, growth potential, and a profound sense of purpose. However, for this to happen, companies must actively market cybersecurity careers to women and highlight the unique benefits of this dynamic field. Read more
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