Two reports show that 2018 did not bring the progress many hoped to see
Hollywood is known for making sequels, but unfortunately there’s one refrain that grows increasingly stale with each passing year– the narrative that women continue to remain woefully underrepresented behind-the-scenes according to two studies just released. Both San Diego State’s Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film annual Celluloid Ceiling report and USC Annenberg’s Inclusion in the Director’s Chair provide evidence of this discouraging tale.
Percentages of Top 250 Films with No Women in Roles Considered
92% had no women directors
womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu
73% had no women writers
42% had no women exec. producers
27% had no women producers
74% had no women editors
96% had no women cinematographers
One quarter or 25% of films had no or
1 woman in the above roles
Rather than making progress, it appears that opportunities for women to contribute as directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers actually diminished in 2018.
In 2018, women comprised 20% of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers working on the top 250 domestic grossing films. This represents an increase of 2 percentage points from 18% in 2017. Last year, only 1% of films employed 10 or more women in the above roles. In contrast, 74% of films employed 10 or more men. Women accounted for 8% of directors, down 3 percentage points from 11% in 2017. This is 1 percentage point below the 9% achieved in 1998. By role, women comprised 16% of writers, 21% of executive producers, 26% of producers, 21% of editors, and 4% of cinematographers. The study also found that women accounted for 6% of composers, 6% of sound designers, and 10% of supervising sound editors.
Variety noted that Dr. Martha Lauzen, author of The Celluloid Ceiling asserts that real change will not happen unless all industry stakeholders make it a priority:
The study provides no evidence that the mainstream film industry has experienced the profound positive shift predicted by so many industry observers over the last year. This radical underrepresentation is unlikely to be remedied by the voluntary efforts of a few individuals or a single studio…Without a large-scale effort mounted by the major players – the studios, talent agencies, guilds, and associations – we are unlikely to see meaningful change. The distance from 8% to some semblance of parity is simply too vast. What is needed is a will to change, ownership of the issue – meaning the effort originates with the major players, transparency, and the setting of concrete goals. Will, ownership, transparency, and goals are the keys to moving forward.
Despite the disappointing numbers for women overall, there were some positives, particularly for black directors. However, of that group, only one was a woman, Ava DuVernay who helmed A Wrinkle in Time.
The breakdown in ages is also interesting. It seems young women and older women need not apply for directing gigs and while indie films offer opportunities, success there doesn’t seem to carry over into the realm of big budget Hollywood fare.
The disregard of female filmmakers is also reflected in upcoming awards offerings. Neither the Golden Globes nor the Producers Guild nominated films directed by women.
There were certainly female directors to choose from this year. Can You Ever Forgive Me?, which earned Richard E. Grant a Best Supporting Actor nomination, was directed by Marielle Heller. Nicole Kidman earned a nomination for Destroyer (as Best Actress), but director Karyn Kusama did not. Mary Queen of Scots, which stars Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie as warring 16th-century English royals, was directed by Josie Rourke with a “keenly feminist sensibility” …but was shut out of the nominations. Debra Granik, who helped launch Jennifer Lawrence into fame with her 2010 film Winter’s Bone, returned this year with Leave No Trace, but did not earn a nomination. Chloé Zhao’s The Rider recently won Best Feature at this year’s Gotham Awards, but was not nominated for any Globes.
It’s discouraging to see women directors did better in 1998 than in 2018.
Looking northward, perhaps the U.S. film industry could learn a thing or two from our Canadian neighbors. Telefilm Canada has made it a priority to achieve gender parity in its offerings by 2020.
While Telefilm Canada still has work to do, particularly with bigger budget productions, its obvious success demonstrates that progress is possible.
A year after setting a goal for gender parity in Canadian film by 2020, Telefilm is closer to the finish line than expected. Among the film projects the federal funding agency has in the pipeline for this fiscal year, 44 per cent have a female director attached, 46 per cent feature a female screenwriter and 51 per cent have a female producer.
source: https://nowtoronto.com
The figure is a heartening leap from the 2013-2014 fiscal year when only 17 per cent of Canadian film projects had women directors. That number plummeted to four per cent for films budgeted over $1 million.