The following post originally appeared on Stephen Follows’ website and is published here with permission of the author.
Last week, I looked at the most employed people in the UK film industry. This week, I thought I would merge this approach with a topic I have written a lot about previously, namely gender.
I took a look at the women who have the most credits over the last 10 years across all UK films budgeted over £500k. In summary,
- 11% of the people who have directed two or more UK films 2003–13 are women
- Women are far better represented in producing than in writing and directing
- 25 of the top 104 UK producers are women
- Novelist J.K. Rowling is the woman with the most number of writing credits in UK film in 2003–13
DIRECTORS
Just 11% of the people who have directed two or more UK films 2003–13 are women.
PRODUCERS
Women are far better represented in producing than in writing and directing.
25 of the top 104 UK producers are women (i.e. those who have produced at least 11 UK feature films in 2003–13).
SCREENWRITERS
Novelist J.K. Rowling is the woman with the most number of writing credits in UK film in 2003–13. I’ve included all writing credits, hence the appearance of J.K. Rowling and Jane Austin.
However, if we look strictly at screenplay credits, as opposed to source material, then Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass and X-Men) and Abi Morgan (The Iron Lady and Brick Lane) share the top spot.
EPILOGUE
I used the BFI’s tracking data for films made between 2003 and 2013 to define what was and wasn’t a UK film. I have no doubt that some of these classifications will be disputed as (a) the BFI are not perfect and (b) film can be a subjective field. If any of the people listed above feel aggrieved that their number of credits is incorrect then please do drop me a line.
This research looks at number of credits, not number of days worked. Consequently, someone who worked one day apiece on ten films will get ten credits whereas someone else who performed ten days work on a single film will be listed as having one credit. There is little I can do to account for this possible unfairness.
