2018 Wasn't A Good Year For Women Filmmakers

Despite the MeToo movement and all that has happened for women in Hollywood last year, there is still a long way to go for female filmmakers and female actors.

A recent study found in total, women comprised of an abysmal 20% of all directors, producers, editors, and cinematographers in the top 250 grossing Hollywood films. This means that 92% of films had no women directors, 73% had no women writers, 27% had no women producers, 74% had no women editors, and whopping 96% had no women cinematographers.

The percentage of woman in film was down 3 percentage points from 2017, according to a report released by the Center for the Women in Television and Film. It was even below the 9 per cent level achieved 20 years earlier in 1998 which indicates that women still haven't earned their rightful place in the Land of Dreams. 

This radical under representation of women is unlikely to be remedied by the voluntary efforts of a few individuals or a single studio executive. Without a large-scale effort mounted by the major studios, guilds and associations  we are unlikely to see meaningful change.

The largest gains, according to researchers, were among writers which was 16 per cent, up 5 percentage points from 2017 which has seen a recent surge with and producers with 21 per cent, also up 5 percentage points from 2017.

The writer of Bumblebee, the latest Transformer movie in the franchise, has recently highlighted female writers, and challenged traditional gender roles. Screenwriter Christina Hodson hopes the main character in the Bumblebee film, Charlie Watson, will inspire young women to become interested in mechanics and robotics and feel as though those career options are open to them rather than just to young boys. 

Thankfully there are a lot of women to watch out for this year.  Chiara Towne is one of them. She is the daughter of famous Chinatown screenwriter Robert Towne and has recently directed documentaries and short videos. Her screenplay, “V.I.N.,” told the story of Malcolm X biographer Alex Haley’s interview with the head of the American Nazi Party, George Lincoln Rockwell.

In addition, early 2018, Lady Bird director Greta Gerwig became only the fifth woman in history to be nominated for a Best Director award at the Oscars. Expect great things from this talented director in the years to come. Also Anna Boden is set to co-direct Marvel’s upcoming Captain Marvel, so although the numbers ma be bleak, female directors will hopefully make inroads in Hollywood, making 2019 a ground-breaking year.