Study Shows Uptick in Women Film Directors, But Numbers Still Low

2020 proved to be a trickster for women working in the film industry. Many film critics and pundits anticipated that it would be a year of change and even triumph. Studios were set to release a number of big-budget, attention-grabbing, potentially career-making films with women at the helm, including Chloe Zhao’s Eternals and Cate Shortland’s Black Widow. Then COVID-19 happened and theaters nationwide shuttered.

In some ways, the employment statistics that emerged from the films that found theatrical distribution were a welcome surprise for women filmmakers. Even though a number of high-profile films were pushed into 2021, the percentage of women directors rose. According to the latest Celluloid Ceiling study of gender and employment in key behind-the-scenes roles, women accounted for 16% of directors working on the top 100 (domestic) grossing films in 2020, up from 12% in 2019 and a measly — and frankly mind-bending — 4% in 2018. Women comprised 18% of directors working on the top 250 films, up from 13% in 2019 and 8% in 2018. The latest percentages represent historic highs and reflect two consecutive years of growth, breaking a recent pattern of small increases one year only to be followed by decreases the next. Of course, surrounding every silver lining is a cloud. Fully 80% of top films still do not have women at the helm.

When the broader view of women’s employment in behind-the-scenes roles is considered, a more troubling picture of growth bordering on stagnation emerges. Women made up 23% of all directors, writers, executive producers, producers, editors, and cinematographers working on the top 250 films of 2020. This represents an increase of 2 percentage points from 21% in 2019 and a recent historic high. It is also an increase of only 6 percentage points since 1998. The stability of the numbers is stunning. After countless panels, repeated calls for voluntary programs, and numerous promises of change, the overall percentage of women working on top-grossing films has barely budged in over two decades.

By role, the percentages of women in various craft areas have experienced scant growth. The percentage of women cinematographers remained virtually unchanged, increasing from 4% in 1998 to 6% in 2020. The same is true for editors, with their numbers climbing from 20% in 1998 to 22% in 2020. The percentage of executive producers rose from 18% in 1998 to 21% in 2020. As writers and producers, women fared slightly better. The percentage of women writers increased from 13% in 1998 to 17% in 2020, and the percentage of women producers rose from 24% in 1998 to 30% in 2020.

Due to the interruption in box office grosses, this year’s Celluloid Ceiling study also tracked women’s employment on films included on the Digital Entertainment Group’s “Watched at Home” list from March through December. The list includes U.S. digital sales, digital rentals (VOD), DVD, and Blu-ray. Every recently released U.S. film that appeared on the weekly list at least once was included. As it turns out, anyone concerned that the films with theatrical releases were not the films consumers were actually watching this year would be reassured by the overlap between the lists. In fact, 63% of the films on the “Watched at Home” list also appear on the list of top-grossing films. Not surprisingly, the employment numbers for the “Watched at Home” list largely mirrored those on the top-grossing list. Women comprised 19% of all directors, writers, executive producers, producers, editors, and cinematographers working on the watched at home films. This is just slightly lower than the 21% achieved on the top 100 grossing films.

When this life-stealing pandemic finally and mercifully winds down, the question remains whether the disruption will have altered the mainstream film industry’s inclinations to hire women in high-profile roles. My guess is that it will not. Hollywood has never been a fan of change. In fact, the only time the film business ever voluntarily altered its modus operandi was in the late 1920s and early 1930s when filmmakers were besieged by negative press, evolving technology, and a patchwork of local and state censorship boards fueled by complaints by members of various religious groups including angry Catholics (the Catholic Legion of Decency to be exact). The industry introduced and enforced the Motion Picture Production Code, cleaning up what was considered by some to be objectionable content at the time. It would take a convergence of similarly compelling and sustained pressures to force collective industry-wide action on this issue. At the same time, a wholesale abandonment of inclusion efforts seems unlikely as well, due to larger shifts in our culture that will not tolerate significant backsliding. Change is likely to come in dribs and drabs and not necessarily in a linear fashion. Progress in Hollywood has always been a marathon, not a sprint. Change has been evolutionary, not revolutionary. There’s no reason to believe this time will be any different.