Oprah Winfrey Furious as Denzel Washington Continues to Release Videos Uncovering Her Alleged Lies and Dark Conspiracies

To create the 27th annual list of entertainment’s top female leaders, The Hollywood Reporter delved into 2018’s box office and ratings hits, hot deals and industry milestones — from cultural phenomena (Black Panther) to mega-mergers (Disney-Fox) — to identify the key women driving those wins and disruptions in C-suites, on backlots, in writers rooms and everywhere power operates in Hollywood. The result is a snapshot of female power that reflects what’s changed in the world of entertainment (and what hasn’t) amid Time’s Up and the industry’s merger mania.

At the highest corporate levels of Hollywood, a few women have ascended, notably Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke and THR’s Women in Entertainment Executive of the Year Dana Walden, who will take her Fox TV empire (but not her longtime leadership partner, Gary Newman) with her to Disney in 2019.

But it’s primarily in the creative trenches where female voices have gotten louder, faster, with more and more stars taking on producer duties to tell the stories they care about — so multitasking veterans including Nicole Kidman, Octavia Spencer and Jennifer Lopez are added to this year’s roster alongside meteoric breakouts like Tiffany Haddish.