In the context of the film and television industries, greenlighting is giving permission to proceed with a project. It specifically refers to formally approving its production finance and committing to this financing, thereby allowing the project to proceed from the development phase to pre-production and principal photography. The power to greenlight a project is generally reserved to those in a project or financial management role within an organization. The process of taking a project from pitch to green light formed the basis of a successful reality TV show titled Project Greenlight. The term is a reference to the green traffic signal, indicating "go ahead".
At the Big Five major film studios in the United States and the mini-majors, greenlight power is generally exercised by committees of the studios' high-level executives. However, the studio president, chairman, or chief executive is usually the person who makes the final judgment call. UCLA reported in 2020 that senior management teams at Hollywood film studios were 93 percent white and 80 percent male.