Female & Underrepresented Directors Of Top-Grossing Films Hit Highs But No Gains For Women Of Color, USC Study Finds
deadline.comUSC Annenberg’s Inclusion Initiative released its annual “Inclusion in the Director’s Chair” which analyzes 1,500 top films from 2007 to 2021 for gender and race/ethnicity representation.Overall, there have been significant gains for women and people of color directors but improvement is still needed, the study says.Notably, the percentage of women directors of top=grossing movies reached 15% in 2020, an all-time high.
They include Nia DaCosta, Olivia Wilde, Sanaa Hamri, Ava DuVernay, Cathy Yan, Patty Jenkins, Patricia Riggen, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Lilly and Lana Wachowski, Catherine Hardwicke, Gina Prince-Bythewood, and Loveleen Tandan, among others.The percentage of directors from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups helming top-grossing films also reached a 15-year high in 2021 though, men benefitted the most, the study finds.
The percentage of women of color directors did not change across the study.According to the report, fewer than 2% of all top-grossing directors were women of color across 15 years.
This is a total of only 18 top-grossing films directed by women of color and 15 individual women of color who worked on a top-grossing movie during the time frame.Women and underrepresented directors fared better in the streaming space at Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, and HBO Max, according to the study.“While we saw gains for women and directors of color in top-grossing films, the strongest signs of inclusion are on streaming platforms,” Dr.
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