It’s a sad truth that Hollywood is utterly male-dominated, with some terrible people holding all the power in Tinsel Town. It’s something that has been known for a long time, but sadly, up until the last few years very little was getting done to try and fix the problem. A new report from Variety has revealed that 2020 featured more top films made by female directors than ever before, proving that the times and industry is changing at long last.
According to the new report from The Centre for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, 16% of 2020’s top 100 grossing films were directed by women. Now that number might sound ridiculously low to you, but considering the same figure was only 12% in 2019 and a frighteningly low 4% in 2018, it does show that we are starting to see some big changes on this front in Hollywood. It’s not just about directors though, as the report revealed that 19% of the directors, writers, executive producers, producers, editors, and cinematographers involved in this list were women, so studies are starting to take diversity more seriously and get females more involved in the whole filmmaking process.
The figure could’ve possibly been even higher if other female-directed films like Black Widow, The Eternals, and The Nightingale weren’t all postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, though these films will likely bolster the numbers for 2021. There is sadly still a lot more that needs to get done especially at the top studio executive level, but it is encouraging to see progress in this regard and hopefully, it means we will see far great diversity and representation across the spectrum in the coming years. All of which will hopefully lead to a greater diversity of filmmaking overall.
With big studios like Marvel trying to drive greater diversity on their projects and new rules that force diversity to allow for eligibility for the Best Picture prize at the Oscars, the industry is starting to change some of its archaic ways.
Last Updated: January 4, 2021
cloudzn
January 5, 2021 at 09:21
Here’s an idea, get quality directors instead of being so concerned about the directors gender. I would like to point out that BoP was a flop
Mandalorian Jim
January 7, 2021 at 12:49
I couldn’t have said it better: BoP and Charlie’s Angels both flopped badly, and I think the same can be said for Wonder Woman 1984. Focussing on the gender of directors takes away from the fact that there actually incredibly talented people out there, and that they should be given the chance to make their movies – same with scriptwriters.
For WW84, clearly Patty shouldn’t have had that level of creative control, and they should have gotten the original writing gang back, but the fact that someone with very limited experience was pushed and then initially lauded by the media (for being stunning and brave), actually makes the backlash worse.
In fact, I’d say, it actually pushes the real move forward for directors and writers of colour (fuck I hate this term) or female industry specialists backwards, because, instead of the best, we get a bio-with-pronouns on twitter, and thus the impression that they can’t perform at the level that’s required for a Hollywood blockbuster.
This is the same issue that cropped up in the comics industry, which has now ultimately collapsed because it was more important to pander and virtue signal than to create exciting comics that people ACTUALLY want to buy. And now the industry is almost dead. AT&T has cut DC’s funding, and DC has cut their books. Marvel is going through something similar, and it’s only a matter of time before the two giants will be done. My money is on DC dying first, because I really can’t see AT&T trying to prop up a business that isn’t delivering.