Change is already underway. Speaking at the first-ever BRIC Foundation talent and innovation summit Feb. 9 in Los Angeles, USC professor Stacy L. Smith (an expert on gender in media and director of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative) said for the first time she has begun to feel optimistic based on her latest data. There's a 12-year high in female leads or co-leads for 2018's top 100 box office films — up from 32 percent in 2017 to roughly 40 percent, according to Smith. Still, behind the scenes, her latest data shows no improvement.

Sold-out inaugural 2019 BRIC Talent and Innovation Summit gathers a diverse array of creative professionals and leaders in entertainment and technology to reinvent how the industry recruits, supports and nurtures talent.

This past Saturday, at the 2019 BRIC Talent and Innovation Summit, Women in Animation vice president Jinko Gotoh announced the recipients of this year’s WIA Scholarship -- April Apodaca, Mariyah Rahman and Catharine Ren. Out of 66 applicants from all over the U.S., representing a range of over 25 different academic institutions with animation programs, the WIA scholarship committee came to the conclusion that there were three students who were equally deserving of these scholarships.

The BRIC Foundation will hold its first Talent & Innovation Summit on Saturday, Feb. 9, at the Hungarian Cultural Alliance in downtown Los Angeles. The daylong event features talks by thought leaders and industry disrupters from throughout the entertainment industry

A new event aimed at uplifting a new generation of diverse talents, BRIC Talent and Innovation Summit will hold its inaugural edition on Saturday, February 9 in Downtown Los Angeles.The all-day interactive summit will bring together a community of thought provokers and industry disruptors from different facets of the entertainment and tech industries for an exciting day of crowdsourcing ideas and workshopping solutions.

Founded by entertainment industry heavyweights Alison Mann, VP of Talent for Illumination; Jill Gilbert, Head of Creative Affairs for Luma Pictures; and producer Nicole Hendrix, BRIC was created with the mission of creating new access points for women and members of underrepresented groups to excel at creative leadership and to enable cultural change through engaging and empowering talent.

On February 9, BRIC will host its first-ever all-day interactive summit – the 2019 BRIC Talent and Innovation Summit, bringing together a community of thought provokers and industry disrupters from different facets of the entertainment and tech industries - an exciting day of crowdsourcing ideas and new workshopping solutions.

According to a recent report issued last year by the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA, "women and minorities remained notably underrepresented in every arena." One new foundation is helping to change this across all fronts, however.