Free Republic

Animation companies are moving haltingly to promote women to key roles producing and directing the films and shows they make, according to a new study by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. In the past 12 years, 3% of the directors of animated movies were women, and just one, “Kung Fu Panda 2’s” Jennifer Yuh Nelson, was a woman of color. On the small screen, 13% of episodes from popular animated TV programs from 2018 had female directors, three of whom were women from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds. That lack of diversity was reflected in the stories unfolding across movie...

Disney, which received much criticism for its marketing and distribution efforts on behalf of Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (which ended up beating Disney's own animated product at this year's Oscars), has now agreed to distribute an animated feature produced in France. The company announced in Cannes on Saturday that it has bought for an undisclosed figure distribution rights to Onyx Films' 3-D animated film Renaissance, the first digitally rendered animated feature ever produced in France.