This year will see some major movie releases from women directors. There’s superhero flick “Wonder Woman,” starring Gal Gadot and directed by Patty Jenkins, and the bachelorette comedy “Rock That Body,” starring Scarlett Johansson and Kate McKinnon, helmed by Lucia Aniello.
But don’t let those high-profile projects fool you.
A study released Thursday by San Diego State’s Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film finds the number of women directors is declining.
“The Celluloid Ceiling: Behind-the-Scenes Employment of Women on the Top 100, 250, and 500 Films of 2016” was authored by Martha M. Lauzen. For the past 19 years it has tracked the top-grossing movies and bills itself as “the longest-running and most comprehensive study of women’s behind-the scenes employment in film available.”
According to the study only 7% of directors among the year’s top 250 grossing films were women, down from 9% in 2015.
All told, women made up 17% of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers working on the top 250 grossing films in 2016 in North America. That also represents a 2% drop from 2015.
For the top 500 films — which included more independent films — women accounted for 19% of all directors, writers, executive producers, producers, editors, and cinematographers. Again, that was a 2% decline from 2015.
The data comes at a time when Hollywood has been pushing for greater diversity.
Kate Rees Davies is a film maker and member of the Alliance of Women Directors. Last year she started an initiative of panel discussions about how to broaden opportunities for women in Hollywood.
She said there are a lot of discussions being had about how these types of numbers need to change and what can be done.
“We have a slew of men who have never directed anything being handed $150 to $200 million budgeted movies,” Rees Davies said. “The Hollywood system is, ‘I am a white male in my 50s or 60s who has had a phenomenal career and now I’m going to mentor a younger me.'”
Rees Davies said she see glimmers of hope in partnering with people like “American Horror Story” creator Ryan Murphy, who founded the Half Foundation to mentor women, people of color and/or members of the LGBTQ community in the TV industry.
In December he received The Hollywood Reporter’s inaugural Equity in Entertainment Award.
In his acceptance speech he said “I felt I had failed” after a plan to have a woman direct an episode of “The People v. O.J. Simpson” series fell through.
“I have always had female directors on my shows, but why here didn’t I feel I had a roster of women around me who I could turn this important episode over to,” he said. “Why weren’t these women on speed-dial? Why did I make the choice that was easier for me, but not for the material, or the world in general?”
Rees Davies said Hollywood insiders like Murphy and the showrunners of “Queen Sugar” and “Jessica Jones” (who both arranged to have entire seasons directed by women) are recognizing the need and doing something about it.
At the end of the day, Rees Davies said, women directors aren’t looking for special treatment. They just simply want equal treatment.
“I don’t tout myself as a woman director,” she said. “I am a director and I have every single right to be in the room, along with any other members of a diverse group, with these 30-something-year-old white men who are being considered.”
