“A hundred women were elected!” said Jane Fonda when she took the stage at the Beverly Hilton for the WIF Honors presented by Max Mara on Thursday, Oct. 5, referring to the sweeping Democratic “blue wave” of victories from the 2026 U.S. midterm elections. For the first time, next year, more than 100 Democratic women will serve in the U.S. House. “And I think it doesn’t have so much to do with Democrat and Republican,” Fonda said. “I think it has to do with cruelty and love. Don’t we feel better?”
Fonda continued, “If authoritarianism is like a cancer that thrives when people feel isolated or frightened or hopeless, the antidote is right here in this room. I think that if we’ve learned something important this week, [it’s] power isn’t something women have to wait for someone to give us. It’s something we can take when we stand together!”
Before presenting this year’s Jane Fonda Humanitarian award, she issued the room a warning: “Of course winning power is one thing, and what you do with it is another,” Fonda said. “We have to celebrate our victory but let’s not sit back and think, ‘Oh god, we’ve won.’ We have to keep vigilant and make sure that the people we’ve elected do what they’ve promised to do.”
Since the award’s creation in 2021, women including Jamie Lee Curtis, Annette Bening and America Ferrera have received Fonda’s namesake honor. “And this year, I knew exactly who I wanted,” said Fonda about Salma Hayek Pinault. Fonda recalled how 30-something years ago, she and Hayek went to Mexico with Eve Ensler, the author of The Vagina Monologues “to call attention to the fact that hundreds of women and girls had been disappeared and murdered.”
Fonda praised Hayek’s passion and how she listens to people, as well as her advocacy and work with the Kering Foundation. “She understands power,” said Fonda, recalling how the Mexican actress came to the U.S. in the ’90s only to be told she couldn’t be a leading lady. “So she became a producer and fought to make Frida,” Fonda said. “And she became the first Mexican actress to be nominated for an Oscar for best actress. … Between Ugly Betty and Frida, Salma’s created an opportunity not just for herself but to countless others in front of the camera as well as behind the camera.”
After Hayek accepted the award, she joined Fonda for a fireside chat. “You’ve really been my inspiration and have been a mentor for me,” said Hayek, dedicating the award to the late activist Dolores Huerta, who passed on Oct. 28. “She was a special womb for my community,” said Hayek. “And then I have to say this, this is the other womb … Jane Fonda’s womb.”
“I told you I didn’t know what was going to come out of her mouth!” joked Fonda at the womb reference.
Presenter Sharon Stone also referenced the election. “What’s new?” she joked upon taking the podium. “Ugh, they probably think that women aren’t mad anymore. So great! I just put my rage away and I put it in a pocket … in case I need it again. In case they don’t do what they’re supposed to do, I can just whip it right back out.”
Stone got a round of applause. “They’re clapping because they think we’re joking!” she said. “I love women who refuse to play by the rules. Especially when the rules were written by … somebody else. And we’ve seen quite a few women rewriting the rules this week, haven’t we?”
Stone then presented the Crystal Award for Advocacy to Ted Lasso‘s Hannah Waddingham. “In that role, she gives us something we still don’t see nearly enough of on television,” Stone said. “An honest portrayal of women’s friendships. Too often, television gives us women who are competing with each other, undermining each other, fighting over the same man.” Here, Stone laughs — and so does the crowd. “Cause that’s what we do! Just so you know, it’s a theme of all of our lives. Just scratching women’s eyes out … Meow!”
WIF (formerly Women In Film) CEO Kirsten Schaffer was also in high spirits as a result of the election. “Wow, what a week,” Schaffer began when she addressed the room. “I know we’re all going to talk about it, but we have to just keep riding this wave. Because it’s the first time in a while that I felt hope — hope for a future that centers working people. Hope for building intentional community that allows us to stand up against hate and violence and tyranny. Hope that a wave of women in leadership will change the course of history.”
Schaffer added, “I know Jane talked about this … But this week, the people elected the first Black governor in the U.S., Keisha Lance Bottoms. The first Latina governor in Texas, Gina Hinojosa. And the first Native American governor, Deb Haaland. There were many other firsts — actually, too many to name them all — but I do want to call out one other thing. For the first time, six trans nonbinary elected officials in major races across the country won.”
However, women in entertainment have a ways to go — and Schaffer noted the decrease in the number of females in leading roles, female directors and female showrunners in the past year. “So what are we going to do about? At WIF, we have a simple answer: We keep going,” Schaffer said. “We keep opening doors. We keep investing in each other. We keep hiring each other. We keep fostering the next generation of storytellers. We keep fighting to change the system, to keep jobs in Los Angeles and to make sure that human creativity remains the heart of this industry.”
She ended by calling out the feminist leaders we recently lost: “Gloria Steinem, Dolly Parton, Dolores Huerta, who was with us here last year, at this event.”
During the rousing evening, Maria Giulia Prezioso Maramotti presented the WIF Max Mara Face of the Future Award to Adria Arjona. Emmy Rossum presented the Crystal Award for Advocacy in Film to writer/director Beth de Araujo and actress Gemma Chan (in absentia) for the film Josephine, about an 8-year-old who witnesses an assault.
Amazon MGM Studios, Apple TV, Delta Air Lines, Netflix, STARZ #TakeTheLead, and Warner Bros. Pictures also supported the event attended by guests including Olivia Munn, Kerry Washington, Katherine LaNasa, Supriya Ganesh, Brittany Snow, Jaime Ray Newman, Caylee Cowan, Jason Momoa, Shari Belafonte, Natalia Bryant, Nastaha Rothwell and Stassi Schroeder.
Director Nancy Meyers presented the final award of the evening, the inaugural Vanguard Award, to former Warner Bros. exec Pamela Abdy — who was recently ousted following the completion of Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition and merger. Abdy gave a passionate 15-minute speech in which she enumerated all of the female directors, executives and producers with whom she’s worked.
“My gratitude for these women has only grown over the years,” Abdy said. “But lately, other feelings — and one in particular — have risen to the surface with undeniable ferocity. And that feeling is pure, unadulterated rage. Rage for these women, rage for me, and even more, rage for the entire generation of women who deserve to have their potential recognized and elevated. Rage at how women are under attack everywhere. Rage, at how our health and our well-being always seem to come second to how we show up in a room. And here’s the problem: as a leader who happens to be a woman, I am supposed to sublimate this rage. And you know what happens when they tell you to tamp down a fever? Sometimes it just burns hotter.”
Abdy continued: “It is getting harder, not easier, to be a woman in the business,” she lamented. “What business are we leading for future vanguards? Is it a healthy industry for the next generation of storytellers and executives to step into? One that allows women to enter with an open heart and mind without having to fight the fights we’re still fighting?
“These are the questions I think about when I focus on funneling my rage,” she went on. “Rage can be destructive, but I think of it as fuel. As something that can burn bright, something that can be harnessed to fight on for what we think is right; what we believe in and what we deserve.”
Added Abdy: “It is incredibly heartening this week to see so many women elected on Tuesday. I truly, for the first time this week, have hope for the next generation.”
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