The Celluloid Ceiling, a report tracking women’s employment in film for the past 23 years, says women directors hit an all-time high in 2020.
The report claims to be the longest-running and most comprehensive study of behind-the-scenes women employment in US films. Since 1998 a total of around 73,000 credits have been recorded in the study.
The 23rd annual Celluloid Ceiling Report has been published. Dr. Martha Lauzen, executive director of the Center for Women’s Studies in Television and Film at San Diego State University.
For the second year in a row, the proportion of women making the highest-grossing films rose to historic highs, the latest report claims, while the proportion of women working in key behind-the-scenes roles remained relatively stable in 2020 .
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Women made up 16% of directors working on the top 100 films in 2020, down from 12% in 2019 and 4% in 2018. 18% of the directors of the 250 best films were women, down from 13% in 2019 and 8% in 2018.
“Even without the release of some of the most anticipated, big-budget women’s films of this year – including Chloe Zhao’s Eternals and Cate Shortlands Black Widow – the percentage of women directing rose in 2020,” Lauzen said. “The good news is we’ve seen growth for women directing for two years in a row. This breaks a current historical pattern where the numbers are trending up one year and down the next. The bad news is that 80% of the top movies still don’t have a woman on top. “
Overall, women made up 23% of those working in key behind-the-scenes roles (directors, writers, executive producers, producers, editors, cinematographers) on the top 250 hit films in 2020, up from 21% in 2019. In the longer term, women did 1998 17% of the people in these roles. This corresponds to an increase of only 6 percentage points over more than two decades.
By roles, women accounted for 17% of writers (up from 19% in 2019), 21% of executive producers (even with 2019), 30% of producers (up from 27% in 2019) and 22% of editors (down from 23% in 2019) and 6% of cameramen (up from 5% in 2019). All of these numbers refer to the top 250 domestic box office films.
In 2020, the majority of films (67%) employed 0 to 4 women in the roles considered. 24% of the films employed 5 to 9 women and 9% employed 10 or more women. In contrast, 5% of the films employed 0 to 4 men in the roles considered, 24% employed 5 to 9 men, and the remaining majority (71%) employed 10 or more men.
“This imbalance is breathtaking. The majority of the films employ fewer than 5 women and 10 or more men, ”said Lauzen.
Due to the interruption in box office revenues caused by COVID-19, this year’s study also recorded the employment of women in films that were listed in the “Watched at Home Top 20 Chart” of the Digital Entertainment Group from March to December 2020.
The list includes US digital sales, digital rentals (VOD), DVD, and Blu-ray. Every recently released (2019, 2020) US film that was on the weekly list at least once has been included. The percentage of women working on films on the most watched list is broadly in line with those on the grossing list.
Lauzen has conducted research on the representation and employment of women on the screen and behind the scenes in film and television. Her studies, including the annual World and Thumbs Down: Gender and Movie Criticism and Why It Matters, have laid the foundation for growing dialogue and activism on the subject. She is the founder and executive director of the Center for Women’s Studies in Television and Film at San Diego State University.
The report can be found here.
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