Women make up 11.6% of global film directors, according to a new study by USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. The figure is a changing indicator of women’s participation in the film industry on a global level, but there is still no equality.
Dr. Stacy L. Smith shared the results of the study at a film event at the Oxford University Cultural Program on Monday. ("Bridgeton" breakout Simon Ashley, "Surface" star Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Dr. Smith led the lineup at the daylong conference.) The report focuses on women's progress across four areas of interest: as global film directors across 11 countries, at film festivals across six countries, as award recipients (for directors, writers and producers at the Academy Awards, BAFTAs and César Awards) and as film executives (at the studios, distributors and subsidiaries in the United States, the United Kingdom and France).
The study looked at novels, narrative films, earned $1 million at the global box office and originated in 11 countries (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States). A total of 4,532 films were evaluated and the gender of 4,991 directors were evaluated.
Although none of the countries approached the global population benchmark of 50%, the three countries with the highest proportion of female directors were Germany (18.7%), the United Kingdom (18.5%) and Australia (18.3%). The lowest percentages are India (4.9%), Japan (4.7%) and the Republic of Korea (9.1%). Women account for 11.3% of U.S. directors, which is comparable to the average. The percentage of women of color chairs in directors (5.7% in 2024) has doubled (2.5% in 2015) over the past decade, but that number is still in the unit.
"For several years, we have looked at the prevalence of female directors," Dr. Smith said in a press release. "The results of this report show that no matter which country they work in, their leadership in films remains steeper. An encouraging finding in this analysis is that changes are changing in some countries, especially the UK. ”
As Dr. Smith noted, Canada, France, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom have shown growth over the past decade. The UK has seen the biggest growth in the past decade. In 2024, 32.3% of its directors were women, up 6.6% (25.7%) from 2023 and 24% (8.3%) from 2015. By comparison, in 2024, 16.2% of American films were directed by women, twice as many as in 2015 (8.5%).
Before the Cannes Film Festival began Tuesday, the report unveiled an April study by Dr. Smith and Katherine Pieper of Annenberg, which highlights the achievements of Kering’s women’s sports program. (The report surveyed 340 narrative films produced in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, the United States and the United Kingdom, making at least $1 million worldwide, and lineups at five top film festivals: Cannes, Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance and Toronto. The new study surveyed the London Film Festival.
Of the 10 years of programming at six film festivals, only 27.8% of narrative films are directed by women. Sundance has the highest percentage of female directors (34.7%), followed by Berlin (30.3%), Toronto (29.4%), London (25.9%), Cannes (21.6%) and Venice (20.5%). This study also breaks the advancement of female narrative directors at every festival every year, regardless of whether their films are screened in competitions, the decomposition of race/ethnicity, and the universality of non-binary directors.
The study also evaluates female art recognition in the Academy Awards, BAFTAS and César Awards for Best Film, Director, Original Screenplay and Adapted Screenplay categories from 2015 to 2025 (Notified 11 years). Among all three award institutions, women are most likely to be nominated for the Best Film category (26.7%), followed by the original script (24.1%) and the adapted script (22.5%). Of the best director nominees, only 14.8% of women are women (each woman nominated as 5.8 male directors).
Finally, the study examined 1,367 executives from film companies in the United States, Britain and France. Overall, 56% of executives are male, compared with 44% for women. Parity was achieved in France, where 50% of identified executives were women, compared to 46.6% in the UK and 42.9% in the US, the study further explored the executive ranks and found that women have the most common roles in the US for senior VP (52%), while women accounted for 54.3% of positions in UK VP /head/head/head/ever eut in Uk and 70% of positions. In all three countries, colored female executives account for a quarter of the statistic (24.4%). There are 16 women of color who hold C-Suite-level roles in the United States, four of whom are dedicated to creating content.
"Overall, the results show that women have found ways to showcase their storytelling talents everywhere, but they are still insufficient compared to men," the study concluded.
Although this level of marginalization varies by country, film festival, award type and executive role, the author points out that women of color face the biggest challenges. “In the analysis reported here, opportunities from underrepresented racial/ethnic women remain less robust, with less recognition than white women,” the authors wrote. “Our other work shows that women of color often tell the most censored stories, and therefore, the continued exclusion of these storytellers reflects ongoing industry biases that exist globally.”