Women are still under-represented in the film industry, new report finds

Greta Gerwig's Barbie dominated at the box office and landed several award nominations. Photo / AP

Female directors like Greta Gerwig and Emerald Fennell have made headlines in recent months with their respective box office hits Barbie and Saltburn, but an eye-opening new report shows the film industry is far from achieving gender parity.

Findings from a new study were presented at the Berlin Film Festival this week, revealing gender equality in the industry is still many years away in some countries, the Guardian UK reports. Titled “Re-Framing the Picture”, the report focused mainly on the UK, Canada and Germany and looked at 12,000 movies produced between 2005 and 2020 in 34 countries.

The research cited “modest” progress which had been made from policies such as diversity standards, but noted there was more work to be done. For example, an average of 78 per cent of creative positions in the British film industry were held by men — 74 per cent in Germany and 77 per cent in Canada.

Saltburn director Emerald Fennell has made waves with her thought-provoking films in recent years. Photo / AP

In light of that, the report predicted a 50/50 split in roles between men and women would not eventuate until 2085 in the UK, 2041 in Germany and 2215 in Canada.

The University of Alberta’s Professor Deb Verhoeven, who helped author the report, said the inequality was systemic in the film industry.

“The film industries do not just need more women, but women in the right positions,” she explained.

“The modest gains made by women and gender minorities have not come at the expense of men [but] have arisen as the result of an expansion of the industry, rather than a displacement of men.”

She added that future policies would need “strong accountability mechanisms, financial incentives and the ability to actively drive industry change”.

The University of Glasgow’s Professor Doris Ruth Eikhof, a policy analyst, told the outlet gender equality policies needed to become a mainstream practice in the industry.

“It is also clear that seeing women as ‘at fault’, as lacking experience or confidence, is not going to bring the systemic change we need. Women need access to influential positions within the film industry, not just to the industry overall,” she noted.

Progress has been noticeably slow in all areas of the entertainment industry. As recently as 2022, Anna Boden became the first woman to co-direct a Marvel movie - Captain Marvel - while just last year, Nia DaCosta made history by becoming the first black woman to direct a Marvel title with The Marvels - itself the first film in the franchise to feature all-female leads.

In March 2023, Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once. And while The Woman King, starring Viola Davis, received several award nominations in 2023, it was snubbed by the Academy Awards.

The recently-released Madame Web, starring Dakota Johnson, features an all-female lead cast. Photo / AP

It’s important to note that unlike Gerwig and Margot Robbie, indisputably the faces of Barbie, the women working on the production crews, in costume design and on lighting and sound for films are not so visible. Variety reports there is a considerable wage gap between costume designers, 87 per cent of whom are women, and other creative department heads on film and TV sets.

Emmy Award-winning costume designer Ariyela Wald-Cohain told the outlet, “Costume design has historically been viewed as ‘women’s work’, and due to the lack of understanding of our job, there has been a lack of respect for our craft.”

It comes after another study found fewer than one in six films will be helmed by a female director this year.

Conducted by NoDeposit365, the research found that of 104 films set to be released in 2024, just 14.4 per cent of those will be directed by women.

Two of those are Marvel films, with recent release Madame Web directed by S.J Clarkson and Venom 3 — set for release in November 2024 — by Kelly Marcel. Madame Web showcases a female-dominated ensemble cast, including Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney.

A staggering 82.7 per cent of 2024 films will be directed by men, with 2.8 per cent led by both male and female directors.

Action and horror are the genres dominating this year’s releases, from Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux to Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two.

The report comes as Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer sweeps awards season, on track to win Best Picture at the Oscars in a category that’s once again largely dominated by male directors, from Steven Spielberg to Yorgos Lanthimos and Martin Scorsese.