Former Sony Pictures boss Amy Pascal has opened up about her departure from the film company, confirming reports she was fired after ill-advised emails, which took aim at Angelina Jolie and U.S. leader President Barack Obama, were leaked as part of last year's (14) studio hack attack.

The outed co-chairman of the movie giant acknowledged her departure wasn't voluntary during Wednesday's (11Feb15) Women in the World conference in San Francisco, California.

Speaking to esteemed journalist Tina Brown, Pascal joked, "All the women here are doing incredible things in this world. All I did was get fired."

Sony executives announced Pascal was stepping down and would start a new production venture at the company earlier this month (Feb15).

The former movie boss admitted she's excited about the future, adding, "I'm 56. It's not exactly the time that you want to start all over again, but it's kind of great and I have to and it's going to be a new adventure for me."

Recalling the moment she first heard about the cyber hack of Sony's database, she said, "I kept calling them (technicians), like, 'They don't have our emails, right? Tell me they don't have our emails...' Well, then they did. That was a bad moment."

Pascal and producer Scott Rudin came under fire for leaked emails in which they joked about President Barack Obama's movie tastes and criticised Angelina Jolie's acting skills.

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