2023-10-26 20:35:21
According to the 2023 edition of a study by the European Audiovisual Observatory, only a quarter of films were directed by a woman between 2018 and 2022 on the continent. A derisory proportion although progress compared to the previous report.
This is a clear observation: only 26% of feature films made in Europe have been made by women in four years. This Thursday, October 26, the European Audiovisual Observatory published its Annual Report taking stock of gender disparities in the different professions of European cinema. Although the curves are increasing, women remain very underrepresented behind the camera. They are most present among producers (35%) and screenwriters (29%), and least among directors of photography (11%) and composers (10%). Three key points to remember from this study.
If the share of women in cinema remains lower than that of men, all the curves are rising, slowly but surely. While in 2013, only 7% of films were made by a female team – with a majority of women behind the camera – in 2022, this statistic has risen to 11%. However, this progression is not equal across the entire European Union. Depending on the country, the rate of feature films directed by women varies between 8% and 37%, with Norway at the top and Turkey at the bottom. France is in twelfth position, with just over 25% of its films directed by women.
Women more often in teams
Although the proportion of women in this profession increases, they work more often than men in teams with other colleagues on the same position. They therefore less often have the opportunity to be in exclusive charge of an assigned function on a feature film. A statistic that is particularly true among screenwriters. The teams in which women, including screenwriters, work are more mixed than those of men. As for feature films whose screenplay is written by at least one woman, 86% are co-written by at least one male screenwriter.
Virtuous circles
Behind the camera, we notice a phenomenon of attraction of female teams when a woman is at the helm of a film. Among the professions cited for feature films directed by at least one woman, the percentage of women screenwriters per film is 77% (compared to 28% for films in general). This figure is 48% if we exclude films written and directed by a single person. The rate of female composers increases from 9% to 16% when the film is co-directed by a woman.
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