Tribute to Women Film Producers

After seeing Madeline Di Nonno 's International Women's Day reshare of the top films directed by women, I felt that a similar tribute to producers was also appropriate.

I quickly came up with a few dozen incredibly successful women in film. If I included television, the list grew so much more. And, I know probably a couple hundred women who are Producers Guild of America (PGA) friends of mine. So, to make this post manageable, I decided to acknowledge women feature film producers that I know or have interacted with, at least to some extent.

Here are twelve remarkable producers that stand out for their impressive awards or box office. (My apologies to anyone I've inadvertantly omitted.)

Cathy Schulman, the producer I always cite as my role model and inspiration, Academy Award winner for Crash, who also produced The Woman King, Five Feet Apart, The Foreigner, Dafur Now, The Illusionist, Employee of the Month, and Tears of the Sun. Now president and CEO of Welle Entertainment , she was also head of production for STX Entertainment, president of Artists Production Group, and president of Mandalay Pictures. As former president of Women in Film and co-founder of Reframe, she is a top industry spokesperson for gender parity. She generously gave me twenty minutes of feedback on my three-minute pitch in the PGA's Diversity Workshop and, years later, gave me notes on the actual screenplay for that project, for which I'm grateful.

Blye Faust , Academy Award winner for Spotlight, her first feature film. She has gone on to do two documentaries, Belly of the Beast and The Grab, as well as the docu-series LuLaRich. She's agreed to participate in an upcoming PGA panel I've been planning.

Nicole Rocklin , Academy Award winner for Spotlight, also produced The Perfect Guy, The Grab, and Love Lizzo. I met her and Blye at a screening of Spotlight, prior to their Academy Award, and have stayed in occasional touch since then.

Lesley Chilcott , pretty much the top documentarian around, Academy Award-winning The Inconvenient Truth (co-producer), as well as producing An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, Waiting for Superman, It Might Get Loud, Codegirl, Watson, and the recent Arnold mini-series. She used to run the PGA's documentary screenings, which were fantastic. She's also wonderful about giving advice to aspiring documentarians I refer to her.

Jenno Topping, two-time Best Picture nominee for Hidden Figures and Ford v Ferrari and, as president of Chernin Entertainment, produced dozens of other great films, including the Planet of the Apes franchise, The Greatest Showman, Spy, The Heat, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, 28 Days, Snatched, and the Charlie's Angels films. Although we haven't met in person, Jenno has always been responsive by email, usually me congratulating her on another terrific film.

Kristina Rivera , Best Picture nominee American Sniper (associate producer), Best Picture nominee The Trial of the Chicago 7 (co-executive producer), Sully, The 15:17 to Paris, and The Mule. We met when she did a talk for Mount Saint Mary's College and Veterans in Media & Entertainment (VME) and we've become friends since then. Penelope and I had a pitch meeting with Kristina and she's read the screenplays of all the films that we've been shopping around.

Cindy Cowan , Best Picture nominee Traffic (then president of production company IEG) and winner of Best Director, Actor, Adapted Screenplay, and Editing. She also produced Very Bad Things, Dr. T & the Women, Red Lights, and Arkansas. We met through various PGA screenings and events and Penelope and I had a pitch meeting with Cindy and her staff, after which they read one of our screenplays.

Suzanne Todd , Independent Spirit Best Picture Award-winning Memento, the Austin Powers films, the Alice in Wonderland films, the Bad Moms films, Must Love Dogs, and G.I. Jane. She was the guest of honor for the first PGA/VME roundtable I organized and moderated.

Jennifer Todd, Independent Spirit Best Picture Award-winning Memento, the Austin Powers films, the Alice in Wonderland films, Jason Bourne, Live By Night, The Way Back, Come from Away, and Must Love Dogs. For a while, she was president of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's Pearl Street Films. Although she's a USC alumna, she accepted my invitation to speak to students in the University of Notre Dame Film, Television, and Theatre honors program.

Lynn Hendee, Ender's Game, The Glorias, In My Country, The Tempest, and Straight Talk, and president of Chartoff Productions of the Rocky and Creed films fame. She was my wonderful mentor, when I first joined the PGA.

Mary Jane Skalski, The Visitor (Academy Award nominated for Best Actor) and The Station Agent, for which she won the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award and Producer Award. Now, as president of production at Echo Lake Entertainment , she produced American Animals. We haven't met, but have exchanged a few pleasant emails.

Christin Baker , CEO and co-founder of Tello Films, LLC , the longest-running LGBTQ streaming platform, she is a prolific producer of Lesbian and queer content, including Merry & Gay, Christmas at the Ranch, I Hate New Year's, and Season of Love. Her series Riley Parra and Secs & Execs have each earned Emmy nominations. We met and became friends through PGA screenings and events.

Congratulations to all of these phenomenal women who lead the way in film producing!