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New Research: Women fare better in the indie movie world

posted by Women & Hollywood
Thursday, October 29, 2009 at 5:08pm EDT

File this under no shit sherlock, but new research from the Center for Study for Women in Television and Film at San Diego State shows that women are more represented on independent films that appear in film festivals than in the top grossing big budget films. Now keep in mind some of those films might overlap because 250 is a big number, but lots of the top grossing films don’t go the festival circuit. They don’t need to. They will have big marketing and ad budgets and will get released in enough theatres to make them successful. One example of a film that might overlap would be Juno which started out on the fest circuit and became a big box office hit.

Indie films need the festival circuit to build buzz so they have half a chance at being successful when they are released. This year some examples of the indie films directed by women that are building buzz include Lone Scherfig’s An Education and Jane Campion’s Bright Star. These films would be considered in the research because neither are domestically produced, but you get the picture. Another thing to consider in this discussion is that not all films that play festivals get any type of release at all. Some will be in a festival or 2 and then languish.

The research studied 25 high profile film festivals in 2008-2009 and that data confirms that women comprise 24% of “directors, writers, producers, cinematographers, and editors on domestically produced films at film festivals.” That compares to the only 16% on the top 250 grossing films.

Here are some of the reasons behind these numbers:

1- Indies are lower budget and we know that women have more success with lower budgets because there is still some bizarre notion in Hollywood that a woman can’t be trusted to handle a big budget flick. Can’t believe that sexist bullshit still reigns, but it does.

2- Documentaries are included and women direct a lot more docs than they direct features. You want to know why women direct more docs? Cause they have lower budgets. See the theme here?

3- Film Festivals strive higher for diversity because box office is not their priority. Lots of festivals raise money through grant makers and grants makers ask you questions about diversity. They just do.

Breaking down the numbers:

Women made up 33% of the producers; 23% of the editors; 22% of the executive producers; 22% of the directors; 19% of the writers; and 9% of the directors of photography. That compares to 23% of the producers; 17% of the editors; 16% of the executive producers; 9% of the directors; 12% of the writers; and 4% of the directors of photography.

But even on docs where I have previously heard from festival staffers that it is 50/50 the results show that women only direct 28%.

Women directors of photography were more likely to work on documentaries than narrative films. That makes sense. Women hire women. If the film is directed by a woman she is more likely to hire a female DP. Also, with some docs the director also acts as the DP, especially if the budget is extremely limited.

Here’s the takeaway according to Dr. Martha Lauzen who conducted the study, “When a studio head says something like, “I’d really like to hire more women directors but there aren’t any,” this study provides useful data to suggest that, in fact, there are.”

Even though 24% is better than 16% it still sucks and is just not right. Bottom line, there are women director, cinematographers, producers, editors all ready to work. They just need to be given the opportunity. That’s all they are asking for, an equal chance.

Full research below

Independent Women: Behind-the-Scenes Representation on Festival Films

by Martha M. Lauzen, Ph.D.

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The percentage of women working as directors, writers, producers, cinematographers, and editors on domestically produced feature-length films appearing at top U.S. film festivals is substantially higher than the percentage of women working on the top 250 domestic grossing films (24% vs. 16%). In fact, in every behind-the-scenes role considered, a higher percentage of women worked on festival films than top grossing films. These differences are largely due to the high numbers of documentaries screening at film festivals.

The differences between festival and top grossing features are especially dramatic in the two most traditionally male roles, directing and cinematography. In these positions, the percentages of women working on festival versus top grossing films more than doubles.

The following summary provides employment figures for feature-length festival films (June 2008-May 2009) and compares these figures to those culled from the top grossing films of 2008 as reported in the annual Celluloid Ceiling study released earlier this year.

The 25 film festivals considered in this study include: AFI Fest; Ann Arbor Film Festival; Atlanta Film Festival; Austin Film Festival; Chicago International Film Festival; Cinequest Film Festival; CineVegas Film Festival; Cleveland International Film Festival; Florida Film Festival; Hamptons International Film Festival; Los Angeles Film Festival; Nashville Film Festival; New Directors, New Films; New York Film Festival; Palm Springs International Film Festival; Rhode Island International Film Festival; St. Louis International Film Festival; San Francisco International Film Festival; Santa Barbara International Film Festival; Seattle International Film Festival; Slamdance Film Festival; Sundance Film Festival; SXSW Film Festival; Telluride Film Festival; Tribeca Film Festival.

Overall Findings

This study analyzed behind-the-scenes employment of 8,051 individuals working on 906 feature-length films identifying the U.S. as the country of origin screening at the 25 festivals listed above.

Overall, women fared best as producers (33%), followed by editors (23%), executive producers (22%), directors (22%), writers (19%), and directors of photography (9%) (see Figure 1).

Women comprised 22% of directors working on films appearing at the festivals considered, compared to 9% on top grossing films (see Figure 2).

Seventy seven percent (77%) of festival films employed no women directors.

Women accounted for 19% of writers working on films appearing at festivals but only 12% on top grossing films.

Eighty four percent (84%) of festival films employed no women writers.

Women comprised 22% of executive producers working on films appearing at festivals, compared to 16% working on top grossing films.

Seventy seven percent (77%) of festival films employed no women writers.

Women accounted for 33% of producers working on films appearing at festivals but only 20% of those working on top grossing films.

Forty one percent (41%) of festival films employed no women producers.

Women comprised 23% of editors working on festival films compared to 17% of those working on top grossing films.

Seventy six percent (76%) of festival films employed no women editors.

Women comprised 9% of directors of photography working on festival films but only 4% of those working on top grossing films.

Ninety one percent (91%) of festival films employed no women directors of photography.

Narrative vs. Documentary

Documentaries accounted for almost half (49%) of all feature-length films screening at the festivals considered. Because behind-the-scenes women have traditionally been better represented on documentaries than narrative features, separate analyses were conducted.

Women comprised a larger percentage of directors working on documentaries than narrative films. Of all directors working on documentaries, 28% were female and 72% were male. Of all directors working on narrative films, 15% were female and 85% were male.

Of all women directors working on festival films, 32% directed narrative films and 67% directed documentaries. In contrast, of all men directors working on festival films, 52% directed narrative films and 48% directed documentaries. In other words, females were more likely to direct documentaries than narrative features whereas males were almost as likely to direct documentaries as narrative films.

A higher percentage of women worked as directors of photography on documentaries than narrative films. Of all directors of photography working on documentaries, 11% were female and 89% were male. Of all directors of photography working on narrative features, 6% were female and 94% were male.

Women directors of photography were more likely to work on documentaries than narrative films. Of all women directors of photography, 67% worked on documentaries and 33% worked on narrative features. In contrast, of all men dps working on feature films, 47% worked on narrative features and 53% worked on documentary features. In other words, women were much more likely to work as dps on documentaries than narrative features whereas men were almost as likely to work on narrative features as documentaries.

Overall, women comprised a larger percentage of behind-the-scenes workers on documentaries than narrative features. Of all behind-the-scenes individuals working on documentaries, 29% were female and 71% were male. Of all behind-the-scenes individuals working on narrative features, 18% were female and 78% were male.

Report compiled by Dr. Martha M. Lauzen, Executive Director, Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, School of Theatre, Television and Film, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, 619.594.6301