Beef Films has signed director Alex Anderson for exclusive spot representation in the U.S. He was included in SHOOT‘s 2009 New Directors Showcase when he was with production house ONE at Optimus largely on the strength of a humorous promo titled “Done” for post/editorial house Optimus.
“Done” was additionally selected for SHOOT‘s “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery (SHOOT, 2/20/09) and that same year won a Chicago/Midwest Emmy for directing.
Among Anderson’s other credits are a promo for the MTV reality show Electric Barbarellas, a campaign for TuneUp starring hip-hop artist and actor Biz Markie and comedian-turned-actor Andy Milonakis, a short film for Google’s Nexus One smartphone, and digital projects for Staples and Trojan Condoms.
Anderson joins a Beef directorial roster that includes Danny Trachtenberg, Ian Schiller, Joe Schaak, Little Red Robot, Michael Pescasio, Nick Spooner, and Seth Townsend.
Beef is headed by partners/exec producers Ashley Adams, Stephen Hens and John Malina, and partner/director Spooner.
USC Annenberg Report: Female Protagonists Reach Parity With Men In Top-Grossing Films Of 2024
For the first time in recent history, the percentage of top-grossing films featuring female protagonists equaled the percentage of films with male protagonists, according to a pair of annual studies released Tuesday.
Movies like "Wicked,""Inside Out 2" and "The Substance" lifted Hollywood's theatrical releases to gender parity in leading roles in 2024. Of the 100 top domestic grossing films in 2024, 42% had female protagonists, and 42% had male protagonists, according to a report issued by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.
The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, which also released its annual study Tuesday, found that 54% of the top 100 films at the box office in 2024 featured girls and women as protagonists. That's a massive jump from just the year prior, when 30% of films featured women in lead roles. In 2007, when the USC annual study began, that figure was just 20%.
"This is the first time we can say that gender equality has been reached in top-grossing films," Stacy L. Smith, founder of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, said in a statement.
"In 2024, three of the top five films had a girl or woman in a leading role, as did five of the top 10 films — including the number one film of the year, Disney's 'Inside Out 2,'" added Smith. "We have always known that female-identified leads would make money. This is not the result of an economic awakening but is due to a number of different constituencies and efforts — at advocacy groups, at studios, through DEI initiatives — to assert the need for equality on screen."
Other metrics suggested the gains in leading roles masked still-endemic disparity throughout Hollywood. The percentage of female characters in speaking roles... Read More