Entertainment

Only One-Third of Speaking Roles in 2025 Movies Were Women

Published

1 day ago

August 12, 2026

Despite making up half the population, only one-third of speaking roles in 2025’s Top 100 grossing movies were women. This according to the latest study from Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, “Inequality in 1,900 Films.”

The dataset begins in 2007, and across those 19 years, the number of female speaking roles has hovered around one-third in Hollywood’s highest-grossing movies. Last year’s figure was 33.6%, identical to 2024’s number and up from 2023’s 31.7%. The highest percentage of female speaking roles in the nearly two decades that USC Annenberg has been tracking came in 2022, with 34.6%.

Broken down by genre, women had the most speaking roles in comedies in 2025 with 38.7%, compared to 28.6% of characters in animation and 30.4% in action/adventure.

“While we’ve seen pockets of progress for women on screen, the pace of change has been slow. Year after year, many of the same patterns remain,” said Dr. Smith. “Incremental improvement is important for achieving meaningful transformation, but after nearly 2 decades of research and advocacy from many groups, it is clear that the industry is content to wait for change to find them rather than pursuing solutions.”

Taylor Dearden, Sepideh Moafi, Fiona Dourif, Katherine LaNasa, Supriya Ganesh, Isa Briones and Shabana Azeez photographed for TheWrap by Erik Carter

Of the top 100 grossing films in 2025, nine of the directors were women — an increase from only three in 2007, but less than the 16 reached in 2024. Across all 19 years, 7% of all directors were women.

Women writers and producers filled 16% and 24.4% of their respective roles in 2025, and the greatest change was observed for women composers, where it grew from zero in 2007 to 8.5% in 2025.

There has been progress made in terms of racial representation. In 2025, 41.5% of all speaking or named characters were from an underrepresented racial/ethnic group, reaching proportional representation, the fourth time in 19 years that this has occurred. Since 2007, the percentage of white characters fell by 19.1 percentage points.

Still, 30 movies did not have any Black characters, 46 were missing Hispanic/Latino characters, and 26 did not have any Asian characters.

Nearly one-quarter of directors were from an underrepresented racial/ethnic group in 2025, a significant gain from 2007 (12.5%), but on par with 2024 (23.2%).

LGBTQ+ representation remained static overall from 2024 with than 1% of all speaking characters in 2025 from the community. Not one transgender character appeared on screen in the top films of 2025.

The percentage of characters with a disability remained stable in 2025 at 2.8%.

“Nineteen years of data show that change is possible, but they also show how fragile that progress can be,” said Dr. Smith. “This is not the first time this report has shown that meaningful gains are followed by a return to business as usual. At a moment when the industry is redefining its future, inclusion can be part of the solution, not a casualty of contraction. The question is no longer whether the industry can change. It’s whether it will.”

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Kingston Rumi Southwick, Arthur Conti Join ‘Egg Baby’ Movie From Amazon

Published

3 minutes ago

August 13, 2026

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EXCLUSIVE: Widow’s Bay star Kingston Rumi Southwick and Arthur Conti, of Mike Flanagan’s upcoming Carrie, have joined Ariana Greenblatt in Egg Baby, Amazon MGM’s new romantic comedy from director Natalia Anderson and XYZ Films.

Written by Sawyer Perry, Egg Baby follows a rebellious artist (Greenblatt) and a golden-boy quarterback (Southwick) who are forced to co-parent an egg for health class, only to find that raising “Yolk-o” might crack open something real between them.

Conti’s role hasn’t been disclosed. XYZ Films is producing with Allison Friedman (The Mortuary Collection, The Fix), in association with BuzzFeed Studios. The film is set to stream globally on Prime Video.

Southwick is a fast-rising actor who broke out with roles in two recent buzz titles. Most recently, he’s been seen playing Matthew Rhys’ son in Widow’s Bay, the breakout horror comedy from Apple TV, which scored the most Emmy nominations of any freshman series this year. Prior to that, he was seen playing the son of Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Negga in Apple’s hit legal drama Presumed Innocent. Also seen in Amazon’s thriller series 56 Days, Southwick is repped by Untitled Entertainment and attorney Erik Hyman of Paul Hastings.

Currently, Conti can be seen opposite Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson in Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, the Mubi slasher from Jane Schoenbrun that nabbed the Queer Palm at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Previously playing a key role in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Conti’s upcoming slate includes Ti West’s Ebenezer, in addition to Flanagan’s series adaptation of the Stephen King classic Carrie. He is repped by WME, The Artists Partnership, and Myman Greenspan.

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Keanu Reeves Motorcycle Racing Series ‘Hooligans’ Renewed For Season 2 On Samsung TV Plus

Published

9 minutes ago

August 13, 2026

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EXCLUSIVE: Samsung TV Plus is renewing original series Hooligans: The ARCH Racing Project with Keanu Reeves & Gard Hollinger for a second season.

The docuseries stars Reeves and Hollinger, who are also executive producers. The renewal news comes ahead of Sunday’s finale of the six-episode first season. In an interview with Deadline earlier this summer, Takashi Nakano, VP of content and programming for Samsung TV Plus, described how the series fits into the streaming giant’s strategy. The intent of the series, he said, is to get viewers ” intimately involved in the life of racing.”

Produced by V10 Entertainment, the series follows Reeves and Hollinger, riders Corey Alexander and Jeremy McWilliams and their team as they compete in the MotoAmerica road racing series. In the vein of Netflix’s Drive to Survive, the series brings to life the personalities and color behind the races.

Salek Brodsky, SVP & Global Head of Samsung TV Plus, called Hooligans “a defining moment” for the platform. “Keanu and Gard have built something that captures the thrill of motorcycle culture through character-driven stories about craftsmanship, innovation and pushing boundaries. Renewing Hooligans reflects our commitment to premium originals that resonate well beyond the screen, and we’re thrilled to keep building alongside Keanu, Gard and V10 Entertainment.”

As the first original docuseries on Samsung TV Plus, the series is part of an exclusive lineup that also includes the four-part original scripted anthology Unlikely Romances from Dhar Mann Studios.

“When we set out to make Hooligans, we wanted to capture something authentic about motorcycle racing: the risk, the family, the obsession that pulls people in,” added John Stevens, CEO, V10 Entertainment. “Keanu and Gard brought a level of passion and specificity that pushed us all to dig deeper. Samsung TV Plus gave us the room to tell this story right. Seeing it resonate the way it has means everything to this team. We can’t wait to share what’s in store for season two.”

Earlier this summer, the streaming platform launched the MotoAmericaTV Channel, which Hooligans is designed to complement. The 24/7 outlet has more than 200 hours of premium race content including live event streams, full race replays, select practice sessions and qualifiers, behind-the-scenes footage, archival videos and full coverage of the 2026-27 season.

Hooligans is executive produced by Reeves, Hollinger, Sharon Hollinger, Carter Skeath, Chance Wright, Rick DeOliveira, and John Stevens, with Alan Bloom serving as showrunner. The docuseries is produced by V10 Entertainment, Thank You Pictures and Trojan Horse Productions.

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Switzerland Selects “Who Is Still Alive’ For International Oscar Race

Published

19 minutes ago

August 13, 2026

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Switzerland has selected Nicolas Wadimoff’s documentary Who Is Still Alive (Qui Vit Encore) as its official submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature. The film, which explores the loss of home against the backdrop of the Gaza War, had its world premiere in Venice at the 2025 Giornate degli Autori.

Who Is Still Alive tells the story of Gaza through the eyes of nine Palestinian refugees: Through their eyes, we discover a reality far removed from the images in the news. They move through a setting reduced to a sketchy chalk map with the outline of Gaza and the words of the protagonists. They recount life in the Gaza Strip before the war and their escape from hell – but also their resilience, creativity and hope. The protagonists were filmed in South Africa, one of the few countries where Palestinians from the Gaza Strip can enter without a visa.

In early 2026, the film received the Prix de Soleure at the Solothurn Film Festival and was nominated for Best Documentary at the Swiss Film Awards. It continues to screen at numerous international festivals, most recently in the Panorama Suisse section of the Locarno Film Festival.

The film is Wadimoff’s third project that deals with Palestine, following 2010’s Still Alive in Gaza and 2018’s The Apollo of Gaza.

Who Is Still Alive was produced by Wadimoff, Philippe Coeytaux and Ketsia Stocker of Geneva-based production company Akka Films, where Wadimoff is a founder and producer. Co-producers include Paris-based Easy Rider Films, Palestine-Jordan company Philistine Films, UK outfit Cocoon Films and RTS Radio Télévision Suisse.

Watermelon Pictures, the distributor of last year’s Oscar-nominated pic The Voice of Hind Rajab, is set to release the film theatrically in the U.S. this fall. Swiss distributor is First Hand Films while Una Mattina is set to release the project in France in October. The title has also sold to countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Latin America.

“Representing Switzerland at the Oscars with our film Qui Vit Encore is a great honor that fills us with joy,” said Wadimoff. “At the same time, it is a great responsibility to make the bodies and voices of the film’s protagonists visible and audible – all of them survivors of the hell of Gaza who were confronted with the unspeakable, yet remain alive and standing tall. It is also an opportunity to loudly and clearly champion the values that have made Switzerland what it should continue to be: a country of humanism and humanity, of dialogue, and of respect for others. We will do our best to live up to this selection.”

Previous films announced for the Best International Feature race include Dua for Kosovo, Flood for Slovakia and Like a Limbless Tree for Turkey.

The 99^th Academy Awards takes place on March 14, 2027.