There Are Almost 24 Male Directors for Every Female Director in Hollywood

vanityfair.com - News alert: it’s tough to be a female director in Hollywood. And on Wednesday, U.S.C.-Annenberg released yet another comprehensive study that details just how tough it is, titled “Inclusion in the Director’s Chair.”

The study analyzes the top 100 highest-grossing films from every year since 2007 and, naturally, comes to shocking conclusions about the industry’s lack of equality. An overall statistic showed that out of the 1,000 films analyzed, only 44 were directed by women. There are about 23.8 male directors for every female director, a statistic that sharply drops for black female and Asian female directors. Out of the 57 black directors included, only three were female, and out of the 34 Asian directors, only three were female. Just one director was Latina. “Women of color are virtually absent as top‐grossing directors,” the study notes.

The study also found a correlation between age and career length for female directors. While male directors are more likely to work from their 20s into their 80s, female directors only worked from their 30s to their 60s—a statistic you can be sure is also impacted by race. In other words: “the span of females’ careers is limited whereas for males it appears to be limitless.”

As the number of female directors in Hollywood declines, experts ponder governmental intervention

nytlive.nytimes.com - Despite the efforts of Hollywood’s leading women to raise awareness about issues such as the gender pay gap and the obstacles faced by female directors, a new report from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University appears to show that opportunities for women in the movie business are not increasing, but, rather, declining. According to the report, the percentage of women directors working on the 250 highest-grossing domestic releases declined from nine percent in 2015 to seven percent in 2016. The number of producers working on the top 250 films of 2016 also declined by two percent from the year before, while the number of women editors declined by five percent. Overall, 96 percent of the year’s top films lacked even a single female cinematographer.

“I would say I’m dumbfounded,” said Martha Lauzen, executive director of the center and chief author of the study. “It is remarkable that with all of the attention and talk over the last couple of years in the business and the film industry, the numbers actually declined. Clearly the current remedies aren’t working.”

Variety’s Power of Women Honors Entertainers, Game-Changing Philanthropists

At their Power of Women event October 14, Variety recognized a diverse group of influential women for transforming the world and communities, giving visibility and support to important causes, and using their platforms for good. Click through to check out the honorees! 

blog.womenandhollywood.com - Variety has announced this year’s female entertainers for their annual Power of Women event: Helen Mirren, Ava DuVernay, Scarlett Johansson, Laverne Cox, and Miley Cyrus have been chosen as the five 2016 honorees.

Each year, the women selected represent “some of the most philanthropic women in Hollywood and their work with their respective causes.”

“For the past eight years, Variety has had the honor and pleasure of identifying leading women in entertainment who are dedicated to improving the community through the worthy causes they support,” said Claudia Eller, Variety co-editor-in-chief. “We are so pleased that once again our amazing partner Lifetime will join us to celebrate the achievements of our outstanding honorees.”

“It is an honor to continue this deeply meaningful partnership with Variety as we together celebrate the power of women’s collective voices dedicated to impacting the world around us in such profound ways,” added Liz Gateley, EVP and head of programming, Lifetime. “We couldn’t be more proud to use Lifetime’s global platforms to amplify the efforts of this year’s honorees and inspire others to join them.”

Read more

Why Hollywood Doesn't Tell More Stories for—and About—Girls

theatlantic.com - My two best friends and I were three lonely children growing up in the ’90s without siblings for playmates. We eventually found each other, but we also found comfort and adventure in a spate of intelligent films about girls like us—heroines of non-franchised stories set in the real world rather than a computer-generated one. There was Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden, Sara Crewe of A Little Princess, Fiona in The Secret of Roan Inish, and the protagonists of Matilda, Harriet the Spy, Fly Away Home, The Parent Trap, and Ponette. These girls were too young for love triangles or battling dystopian forces. Their stories and conflicts varied, but they served to eventually reveal certain qualities: resilience, imagination, audacity, and compassion.

Another thing these films have in common is that they came out decades ago. Today’s audiences rarely see movies like The Secret Garden and Matilda—live-action works for and about younger girls that celebrate the ambition and resourcefulness of their protagonists. For studios, big-budget sequels and reboots and remakes dominate the day. Kids’ movies as a whole are usually animated and/or feature protagonists who are a bit older (or four-legged). Combine that with other systemic problems like outdated ideas about gender and marketing, as well as a dearth of female writers and directors, and the result is a cinematic landscape for girls that’s in some ways less rich today than it was 20 years ago.

Though modern films with boy protagonists are also increasingly animated (Big Hero 6, Sanjay’s Super Team), there are still a few live-action options with young heroes who use ingenuity and courage to solve problems (Pan, The Jungle Book). But within the broader context of storytelling, toys, and costumes for children, boys have traditionally been permitted to fill a wide range of exciting roles (pirates, superheroes, ninjas, astronauts). Girls, meanwhile, tend to be slotted into a narrower range of character types (princesses chief among them), making it that much more valuable when films present alternatives young female viewers can relate to. The problem is even worse for young girls of color, who historically haven’t seen many images of themselves on screen, animated or otherwise (though films like the upcoming Moana seem to offer some hope that might change for the better).

Want to receive early-bird invitations to our global events, custom-tailored content we think you'll love, and get exclusive access to "The World Women Report"?

Join Us by Subscribing NOW!