History

Cathy Schulman

2011–2018

Cathy Schulman, a Best Picture Academy Award® winning producer and veteran film executive, is the president and CEO of Welle Entertainment, a film and television production and finance company that opened its doors in 2017. Schulman was most recently the Head of Production for STX Entertainment. Having joined the company as one of its initial senior executives, Schulman managed an annual twelve picture slate. Recent films under Schulman’s purview include the Summer 2016 hit Bad Moms, written and directed by The Hangover’s Jon Lucas and Scott Moore and starring Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Christina Applegate; and  the critical darling The Edge of Seventeen, written and directed by Kelly Freemon Craig, and starring Woody Harrelson and Hailee Steinfeld, for whom it garnered a Golden Globe nomination. Under her own Bull’s Eye Entertainment banner, Schulman produced Crash, directed by Paul Haggis and starring Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon and Terrence Howard. In addition to Schulman receiving the film’s Best Picture Oscar in 2006, Crash received Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing. Among many of the notable films Schulman has produced are Horns, Voices, Bernie, Soul Surfer, Thumbsucker, and The Illusionist. She also developed and arranged the financing for Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York.

Schulman was the Board President of Women In Film, the industry’s leading advocacy organization for women in media, from 2011 through 2018, and in 2019 she received WIF’s Crystal Award for Advocacy. Schulman is also a  member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, a USC Stark Program producer’s mentor and has taught graduate level film producing at UCLA and the Dodge College of Film Media and Arts at Chapman University, where she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate. She has also served as a judge for the prestigious Samuel Goldwyn Writing Awards. She is a notable industry spokesperson and public speaker and most recently gave the 2016 media address for International Woman’s Day at the United Nations. Schulman is a graduate of Yale University, with a double major in Theater Studies and History of Art. She is the mother of one daughter and resides in Los Angeles, California.

Jane Fleming

2007–2010

Jane Fleming is a founding partner with Mark Ordesky in Court Five, a multi-platform media company focused on developing and converting diverse intellectual property and brands into bold filmed entertainment for distribution in all media worldwide. Over the last three years, she has been a prolific producer of films and television, including Lovely Molly, The Frozen Ground, #RealityHigh, and the critically acclaimed ABC series The Quest.

Ms. Fleming forged her career as a senior executive at New Line Cinema, ultimately holding the position of Senior Vice President, Business Development. From 2006-2010, Ms. Fleming served as President of Women In Film and continues to serve as its President Emeritus and co-Treasurer. She is also a member of the Producers Guild of America and the Television Academy.

CiCi Holloway

2006

CiCi Holloway is an innovative People & Talent leader who has successfully led the HR and D&I efforts in some of the most visible brands in America. She has worked directly for CEOs in notable Fortune firms such as Viacom, Spelling Entertainment, UBS, and LFM Atlanta Falcons Radio. She has led global teams for Showtime, MTV Networks, Nickelodeon, Viacom Radio, Big Ticket Television, Virgin Interactive, CBS, and Paramount Pictures. She has chaired strategic committees for the Executive Leadership Council, and has penned her strategic vision of how to reap the bottom-line benefits of an inclusive workforce in The Handbook for CEOs: Secrets to Diversity Success—People, Performance, and Profits.

Iris Grossman

2003–2005

Beginning her career as an assistant at the talent agency ICM, Iris Grossman quickly climbed the ranks and was upped to talent agent. After several years with the agency, she was given the opportunity to become the Senior Vice President of Talent and Casting for Turner Network Television (TNT). In that capacity, Grossman oversaw all talent and casting issues related to TNT Original films and series. Grossman was instrumental in bringing TNT such top-name stars such as Diane Keaton (Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight); Robert Duvall (The Man Who Captured Eichmann); Gary Sinise and Angelina Jolie (George Wallace) and Tommy Lee Jones (The Good Old Boys). She also cast Alec Baldwin (Nuremberg); Julianna Margulies, Anjelica Huston and Joan Allen (The Mists of Avalon); and Chazz Palminteri (Boss of Bosses); William H. Macy (Door to Door); John Turturro (Monday Night Mayhem); Danny Glover (Buffalo Soldiers) and Jimmy Smits (The Cisco Kid). She spent nine years at TNT, and in October 2001, returned to ICM Partners as a talent agent. In 2013, Grossman joined Paradigm’s Talent Department for three years before moving to Echo Lake Entertainment as a talent manager in 2016.

Grossman is a former two-term President of Women In Film and is WIF’s President-Emerita. She is currently the President of GreenLight Women and is a Board Member for Film2Future. She has won a CSA award for casting George Wallace, also receiving an Emmy nomination for the same. She has also received awards from Big Sisters, Hadassah, and NOW.

Hollace Davids

2000–2002

Hollace Davids has spent most of her career planning and executing events – from dinner parties for 10 to premieres for 8,000. Currently, she serves as Senior Vice President of Special Projects at Universal Pictures in the Feature Marketing Department. She is responsible for planning and implementing all Universal premieres, including the recent “Lone Survivor,” “Neighbors” and “A Million Ways to Die in the West.” She also works on the Awards campaigns, Motion Picture Group parties, dinners, retreats, Exhibitor Relations Meetings and CinemaCon.

Davids began in the entertainment business at the Los Angeles International Film Exposition as Filmex Society Coordinator, becoming a publicist at Columbia Pictures, moving on to Vice President, Special Events at TriStar Pictures and then a special events consultant through her own company.

A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, she served on the Publicity Coordinating Committee for the Academy Awards. She served as President of Women In Film from 2000 to 2003 and now serves on the Board of the Women In Film Foundation.

With her husband, Paul Davids, she has written seven books, including “Star Wars” novels. She was associate producer of “Timothy Leary’s Dead,” producer of “Starry Night” and “The Sci-Fi Boys” and executive producer of “Before We Say Goodbye” and “The Life After Death Project.” Davids has an A.B. in Psychology, Cum Laude from Goucher College in Baltimore, and an Ed.M. in Counseling Psychology from Boston University.

Iris Grossman

1996–1999

Beginning her career as an assistant at the talent agency ICM, Iris Grossman quickly climbed the ranks and was upped to talent agent. After several years with the agency, she was given the opportunity to become the Senior Vice President of Talent and Casting for Turner Network Television (TNT). In that capacity, Grossman oversaw all talent and casting issues related to TNT Original films and series. Grossman was instrumental in bringing TNT such top-name stars such as Diane Keaton (Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight); Robert Duvall (The Man Who Captured Eichmann); Gary Sinise and Angelina Jolie (George Wallace) and Tommy Lee Jones (The Good Old Boys). She also cast Alec Baldwin (Nuremberg); Julianna Margulies, Anjelica Huston and Joan Allen (The Mists of Avalon); and Chazz Palminteri (Boss of Bosses); William H. Macy (Door to Door); John Turturro (Monday Night Mayhem); Danny Glover (Buffalo Soldiers) and Jimmy Smits (The Cisco Kid). She spent nine years at TNT, and in October 2001, returned to ICM Partners as a talent agent. In 2013, Grossman joined Paradigm’s Talent Department for three years before moving to Echo Lake Entertainment as a talent manager in 2016.

Grossman is a former two-term President of Women In Film and is WIF’s President-Emerita. She is currently the President of GreenLight Women and is a Board Member for Film2Future. She has won a CSA award for casting George Wallace, also receiving an Emmy nomination for the same. She has also received awards from Big Sisters, Hadassah, and NOW.

Joan Hyler

1994–1995

A pioneer in the entertainment business, Joan Hyler was the first woman to become a vice president at the William Morris Agency, having hustled her way from secretary to super agent. As a talent agent she had represented some of the most iconic names in show business, including Madonna, Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, and Meryl Streep in the 1970s and ’80s. By the mid-’90s, she owned and operated Hyler Management, a boutique management company with a small, loyal base of clients like Lane, Alfred Molina, Amber Tamblyn, and Bruce Vilanch.

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Patricia Barry

1993

(1921–2016)

Patricia Barry was a prolific stage, film, and television actress who received three Emmy Award nominations.

Outside of her acting carer, Barry supported and served in a variety of educational foundations, charities, professional organizations, and women’s advocacy groups. She was a charter member of WIF who helped to promote the establishment of other WIF chapters throught the United States and then, in the 1990s, in other countries through the creation of Women in Film and Television International.

In addition to her work on behalf of WIF, Barry was the founding president of the American Film Institute Associates and served on boards and committees for Stephens College, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Screen Actors Guild, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the John Tracy Clinic.

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Billie Beasley Jenkins

1991–1992

Billie Beasley Jenkins is a pioneer for professional working women and African-Americans in the entertainment industry. She has been involved in many aspects of film and television including acquisitions, business affairs, human resources, and casting, to executive in charge of production for movies made for television pilots, series, and theatrical films. Her public service activities included involvement with organizations and institutions such as The American Film Institute Gary Hendler Minority Filmmaker Program, the City of Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission, and the Boy Scouts of America Women of Excellence committee, among others.

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Marcy Kelly

1990

Marcy Kelly spent much of her career working in the fields of media policy research and public health communication, namely at the Food and Drug Administration, National Institute on Drug Abuse, the White House Domestic Policy Staff, and Mediascope.

She then switched gears and began writing fiction and screenplays, and became the Vice President of Night Hawk Productions based at Universal Studios, where she was responsible for developing film and television projects. Her volunteer work includes Soule Kindred in America, the Beverly Hills Women’s Club, where she serves as a curator, and the Dana and Christopher Reeve Foundation.

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Marian Rees

1988–1989

(1927–2018)

In a career spanning more than 50 years, Rees started out at Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin’s Tandem Productions, where she was an associate producer on the pilots of “All in the Family” and “Sanford & Son.” In 1981, she formed her own independent production company, a move that was rare for a woman at that time. She was a mentor to many in the business.

Rees served as a vice president of the TV Academy and the Producers Guild of America—which honored her with the prestigious Charles B. FitzSimons Award—and was a two-time president of Women In Film.

Rees was a two-time Emmy winner, who in 1981 formed Marian Rees Associates. “It was so much more important to me not only to tell the stories I wanted to tell, but also o own those movies,” she said. “I knew enough to know that that’s where the real security was.”

Her colleague and producing partner Anne Hopkins was her longtime companion.

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Fern Field

1987–1988

Fern Field began her career at Norman Lear’s Tandem Productions, working as assistant to the Executive Producer of the sitcom “Maude.” She produced the hit television series “Monk,” and other credits include children’s programming, sitcoms, dramas, television movies, and miniseries.

She has been honored with a primetime Emmy, two Peabody Awards, two HUMANITAS awards, the NAACP Image Award, and an Oscar nomination, as well as the Distinguished Service Award for her work with people with disabilities, from President Reagan.

Also an author, Field’s books include Letters To My Husband…, Producers Don’t Cry (based on her professional experiences), an autobiography entitled My Accidental Life, and They Call Me Destiny—a book she says her cat wrote in Italian and which she translated.

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Irma Kalish

1986–1987

(1924–2021)

Irma Kalish’s credits as a television writing duo with her husband Austin (“Rocky”) include “F Troop,” “Family Affair,” “My Three Sons,” “Maude,” “Good Times,” “Bob Newhart,” “All in the Family,” “Facts of Life,” “Gilligan’s Island,” and more.

At a writers luncheon held in her honor, Kalish said, “I want to say how happy I am to see so many women sitting at this table. When I started writing it wasn’t so. They said women weren’t funny. Women could make you cry, but they weren’t funny. I was married, so I knew I could make a man cry. But I knew that I was funny too. Fortunately I married the right guy, who was a big supporter, and we became a great team. But I believed all along that sure, God made man before woman, but you always make a first draft before you do the final.”

“[Rocky] sent me off to do things on my own. That’s how I joined Women In Film. I eventually became president. I was a member of Women in Radio and Television; I was a member of Women in everything. I also ran for the board of the Writers Guild, and I was elected. In due time, I became vice president, and served two terms. Then I decided, well, can’t always be a bridesmaid, gotta be a bride, so I ran for president.” The year was 1985 and, “I lost by four fuckin’ votes.” Kalish served two terms as WGA Vice President.

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Barbara Klein

1985–1986

Johnna Levine

1984–1985

Johnna Levine was the first woman vice president of legal affairs at ABC in 1975, and was later a vice president of business affairs at Warner Bros.

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Mary S. Ledding

1983–1985

Mary Ledding has served as the senior vice president of motion pictures business affairs at MGM, as well as senior vice president of legal affairs at Universal Pictures. She is currently a sole practitioner at the Law Office of Mary Ledding, and a speaker at the USC Gould School of Law.

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Phylis Geller

1982–1983

Phyllis Geller is president of Norman Star Media, a production and consulting company in Washington, DC. Geller has been a producer and media executive for over thirty years. She has overseen programs in all genres, including history, science, drama, performance, and children’s programs. She has been nominated for a primetime Emmy, a daytime Creative Arts Emmy, and two News & Documentary Emmy Awards.

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Mollie Gregory

1981–1982

Mollie Gregory began as a documentary filmmaker who wrote a book about her experiences, whose work as a fiction and non-fiction writer has led her to become a sought-after speaker, particularly on the role and treatment of women in Hollywood.

Her works include Making Films Your Business, Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story, and Women Who Run the Show: How a Brilliant and Creative New Generation Stormed Hollywood.

Gregory is a member of the Writers Guild of America, a past president of PEN America, and a U.S. Vice President of the International Quorum of Motion Picture Producers. As a trustee of the Women In Film Foundation, she created its History Preservation Plan, and chaired “For the Record,” a program that compiled a history of the organization to expand and encourage Women In Film and other women’s groups to preserve their history.

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Bonny Dore

1980–1981

(1947–2013)

Bonny Dore was a producer and executive whose early credits included programming such as “American Bandstand,” “Scooby Doo,” and “Schoolhouse Rock.”

After her time as a creative executive at ABC, she became executive vice president of development and production for Krofft Entertainment, where she developed and produced children’s programs, variety shows, specials, made-for-TV movies, and feature films. With her own company, Dore produced comedy specials and television movies.

She was also active in various entertainment industry organizations, including the Caucus for Producers, Writers, and Directors, which she serves as co-chair from 2005–2007. In addition, she was a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which she served as a member of the Producers Peer Group Executive Committee. Other professional affiliations included the Producers Guild of America and the National Cable Academy. Her numerous honors included two CableACE Awards and four International Television Movie Awards.

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Gloria Goldsmith

1978–1980

Gloria Goldsmith’s writing and producing credits include film, TV series, and television movies.

Barbara Boyle

1977–1978

A graduate of the UCLA School of Law, Barbara Boyle began her career in the entertainment industry as an attorney, and quickly moved into financing and production. She co-founded Sovereign Pictures in 1990, with offices in Los Angeles and London. Sovereign Pictures financed, produced and distributed such films as My Left Foot, Cinema Paradiso, and Reversal of Fortune. Her films have been nominated for 22 Academy Awards, winning several. Boyle also served as president of Valhalla Entertainment Group.

Boyle was executive vice president of production for RKO Pictures, and from 1982 to 1986, Boyle was senior vice president of worldwide production at Orion Pictures Corp., where she supervised such hits as Desperately Seeking Susan, The Terminator, and Robocop. Earlier, she led Roger Corman’s New World Pictures as its chief operating officer and executive vice president.

She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science and its Foreign Language committee. She currently serves as a committee board member of Film Independent’s Project Involve Foundation; sits on the UCLA School of Law Entertainment Advisory Council; and is a member of the Women in Film Foundation Committee. Boyle has lectured extensively around the world and served as a jury member for numerous film festivals. She is a past president of both Film Independent and Women in Film. Boyle has received the Alumnus of the Year Award from the UCLA School of Law, the Vision Award from Film Independent, and the Crystal Award from Women in Film.

From 2003 to 2012, she served as chair of the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media in the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. She was promoted to Associate Dean of Entrepreneurial Activities and Special Initiatives in July 2012.

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Sally Baker

1976–1977

Tichi Wilkerson-Kassel

1973–1976

(1926–2004)

As [The Hollywood Reporter‘s] editor and publisher, Wilkerson Kassel quickly moved daily coverage in new directions, opening bureaus in New York, Paris and Tokyo and making the television industry a prominent reporting beat. In 1988, she launched an electronic version of the paper, intended primarily to give members of the Hollywood community access to the day’s headlines while they traveled.

She was creative in marketing the paper and circulation grew to more than 20,000 before she sold the paper to BPI Communications, according to Robert J. Dowling, who replaced her as editor and publisher in 1988.

From her earliest days at the Reporter, Wilkerson Kassel was infatuated with the movie business and critical of it. “We don’t think of ourselves as a gossip sheet but as a service to the industry,” she said in an interview with [The Los Angeles Times] in 1965. Personally, she said, “I love everything about Hollywood. That’s my problem.” Professionally however, she added, “We can’t worry about stepping on people’s toes. If you do that, you haven’t got a trade paper.”

… As an editor, she organized Women In Film, prompted by a 1973 article in her paper about the scarcity of jobs for women in Hollywood. The article noted that women wrote only 2% of all television series scripts.

… “Tichi opened doors for so many women,” Iris Goodman, [then] president of the organization and a talent agent with International Creative Management, said in an interview this week. “By the time I came into the business I never doubted that I’d succeed, but 30 years ago women did doubt.”

Source: Rourke, Mary. (2004, March 11). Tichi Kassell, 77; Editor of Trade Paper, Founder of Women in Film. The Los Angeles Times.