Gobsmack!, the Bangalore and L.A.-based content studio founded by director Shyam Madiraju, will be handling representation in India for Anonymous Content. The agreement, which includes most of the Anonymous roster of filmmakers, is the first representation deal for Anonymous outside of the U.S. or U.K. Among the Anonymous directors whom Gobsmack! will rep in India are Andrew Douglas, Malcolm Venville, Mark Romanek, David Kellogg, Brett Morgen, PES, David Fincher and Guy Ritchie. “It's become a global marketplace for production as well as for creativity. Our partnering with Gobsmack! in India is an effort for us to widen our pool of sources of great work for our filmmakers and offering them as many options as possible. If you look at India, it's a culture with a tremendous film background and a literacy of production. They have sophisticated audiences and great crews. And their economy is the economy of the 21st century. For us, this move makes a lot of sense.” Madiraju is well-positioned to introduce the talents of Anonymous Content to the Indian ad agency marketplace. As a director working in the US, he was repped by Anonymous for three years. A former creative director at such shops as TBWAChiatDay, Ogilvy & Mather and The Martin Agency, Madiraju took his agency acumen and successfully transitioned to directing in 2006 with a series of spots for the L.A. Film Festival. Madiraju then went on to direct a series of highly acclaimed virals for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel that were produced by Anonymous. He left Anonymous in 2009 to found Gobsmack! in India and the U.S….DP Shane Hurlbut, who is repped by Innovative Artists, has wrapped the feature project Blackbird with director Stefan Ruzowitzky and starring Olivia Wilde and Eric Bana….
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