Hollywood studies show little gain in 2022 for women, people directing color films

Two studies released Monday from San Diego State’s annual report The Celluloid Ceiling and USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative showed little gain for women and people of color working in the film industry in 2022.

In the SDSU study (read here), which tracked women’s employment in the 250 highest-grossing films over the past 25 years, this year’s results show that 11% of the directors of the 100 highest-grossing films by 2022 women were, a decrease of 1% compared to the previous year. Among the top 250 films, this figure rose from 1% to 18%.

Overall, women accounted for 24% of all directors, writers, executive producers, editors and cinematographers working on the top 250 grossing films of 2022, down 1% from 2021. In 1998, the first year of the Celluloid Ceiling Report, that figure was 17%.

Of the top 250 films of 2022, the report said, women made up 19% of the writers, 25% of the executive producers, 31% of the producers, 21% of the editors and 7% of the cinematographers. But that meant that 93% of those films had no cinematographers, 91% no female composers, 80% no female directors, 75% no female editors and 70% no female writers.

“On a positive note, the study found that films with at least one female director employed significantly more women in other key behind-the-scenes roles than films with only male directors,” said Dr. Martha M. Lauzen, founder and managing director. for SDSU’s Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film. “For example, on films with at least one female director, 53% of the writers and 39% of the editors were women. For films directed by men, 12% of the writers and 19% of the editors were women. These are non-trivial differences.”

The USC study (read here), titled “Inclusion in the Directors Chair,” examined the number of female and underrepresented directors in the top-grossing films from 2007 to 2022. In 2022, 9% of the top 100 films by directors were women, compared to 12.7% in 2021. Among women of color, only 2.7% of top-earning directors were women; This percentage has fallen to 1.3% in the last 16 years.

USC also found that the percentage of drivers from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups fell to 20.7%, down 6.6 percentage points since 2021, when that number hit a 15-year high. Overall, 15.2% of directors over the age of 16 were from underrepresented groups, while the proportional representation of the US population is 40.7%.

“These numbers make little sense in light of another study finding,” he says, “that films by underrepresented directors earned roughly the same average Metacritic scores as films by white directors.”

The report highlighted several large and smaller distributors marked by the hiring of women and underrepresented executives, notably Universal and Sony; The latter had five female directors (two black) working on its top films in 2022. Lionsgate and STX were commended for their continued efforts over the 16-year study timeframe.

“Five years after the #MeToo explosion and two years after the assassination of George Floyd, Hollywood has shown little change for women and underrepresented directors – especially women of color,” said Dr. Stacy L. Smith, Associate Professor of Communication and Founder of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. “Donna Langley continues to lead the film industry to ensure that Universal Pictures has built a record of success over the past 16 years, but distributors and studios as a whole need to do more to ensure inclusion in this important behind-the-scenes role. ” to promote . . Perhaps leaders need to adopt a mindset described by Taylor Swift: ‘I’m the problem, I’m the problem’.”