Time’s Up and #MeToo may have marked the beginning of a drastic change for women in 2018 but there was still a rather disheartening trend within the movie industry.
The latest Celluloid Ceiling study has been revealed and Dr. Martha Lauzen told how the percentage of women working as directors on the top 250 grossing films declined from 11% in 2017 to 8% in 2018.
The executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University said: “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.”
She added, according to the Hollywood Reporter: “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 goals.”
The study also found that only “1% of films employed 10 or more women in the behind-the-scenes roles it surveyed,” as opposed to 74% of films that employed 10 or more men.
It was then reported that 8% of women served as directors, women accounted for 26% of producers, 21% of executive producers, 21% of editors, 16% of writers and 4% of cinematographers.
Women writers increased from 11% to 16%, executive producers increased from 19% to 21%, producers saw a 1% increase from 25% to 26% and female editors went from 16% to 21%.
See more from the study here.
Despite the results, 2018 did see Ava DuVernay become the first black woman to direct a $100-million movie with Disney’s “A Wrinkle in Time”. Anna Boden also directed Marvel’s upcoming “Captain Marvel” flick alongside Ryan Fleck.
