In a year where Chloe Zhao won the Best Director Oscar for “Nomadland” and went on to release one of the biggest box office successes of 2021 with Marvel Studios’ “Eternals,” it appears the year, as a whole, was fairly disappointing when it comes to the gender gap in filmmaking. After 2020 saw reasonable gains in parity amongst female and male filmmakers, 2021 has taken a step back, according to a new survey.
In the most recent Celluloid Ceiling report (via THR), the percentage of female filmmakers attached to the Top 100 grossing films decreased in 2021 to 12% from 16% in 2020. When you expand that to the Top 250 films, 2021 saw 17% of its highest-grossing films helmed by females while 2020 saw that number go to 18%. No matter how you cut it, 2021 was a step back in gender parity when it comes to filmmaking. Other than Zhao, the top 20 highest-grossing films of last year also includes filmmakers such as Cate Shortland (“Black Widow“) and Nia DaCosta (“Candyman“).
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“Appearances can be deceiving. While Chloé Zhao won the Oscar last year for directing Nomadland and Jane Campion is a frontrunner in this year’s race for ‘The Power of the Dog,’ the percentage of women directing films actually declined in 2021,” the Center’s founder and executive director Martha Lauzen said. “Basing our perceptions of how women are faring on the well-deserved fortunes of just a few high-profile women can lead us to inaccurate conclusions about the state of women’s employment.”
It’s not all terrible news, however. When you take into account other behind-the-scenes roles, the percentage of female representation either went up from last year or remained flat. Taking into account all BTS roles, women accounted for 21% representation in the Top 100 films, even with 2020’s share. When you look at just producers (32%, up 2% from 2020) and executive producers (26%, up 5% from 2020), there are actual gains. Other roles, such as writers (17 percent), editors (22 percent) and cinematographers (6 percent), all remained flat with 2020.
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Now, the headline is definitely the directors share, as that’s a position that holds a lot of power and respect in the industry. Seeing that drop is worrisome. And while it’s nice to see producers become more diversified, it’s still a little concerning that everything else remained flat. The industry might chalk this up to COVID, as seems to be the excuse for everything. But we’ll just have to see what 2022 brings to see if 2021’s numbers were an anomaly or the beginning of a regression.