#Research
Research: Women of Color See Gains in Top-Grossing Films
The power of “The Woman King’s” reign is still being felt. Gina Prince-Bythewood’s latest is among the titles starring women of color making a major mark on the film...
Research: Inclusion Initiative Finds “Hiring Women of Color Was the Exception, Not the Rule” in 2022
“The pace of change has been slow for women directors,” a new report from Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative concludes. Titled “Inclusion in the...
“Yellowjackets” & “Abbott Elementary” Among Reframe TV Stamp Recipients for Gender-Balanced Hiring
Ninety-four of the 200 most popular series of the 2021-2022 season have earned the ReFrame Stamp for gender-balanced hiring. This amounts to 47 percent, a seven percent decrease from the previous...
Muslim Characters Are “Missing and Maligned” in Popular Global Movies, Study Finds
The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has released its first-ever study on Muslim representation. Dr. Stacy L. Smith and Co. investigated the prevalence and portrayals of Muslim characters across...
Research: Women Directors Hit 13-Year High in 2019 But WOC Remain Especially Underrepresented
We’re ushering in 2020 with some good news and some bad news. Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative just dropped their latest report, “Inclusion in the...
Guest Post: What TV Commissioning Data Can Tell Us About the Longevity of the “#MeToo Moment”
Guest Post by Alice Thorpe By now, we are used to hearing the gains made by women in the U.S. film and TV industries in recent years described as a “moment.” We are still regularly assured that...
Anita Hill’s Commission on Sexual Harassment Launches Industry Worker Survey
Attention anyone who has worked or sought work in the entertainment industry: The Hollywood Commission on Eliminating Sexual Harassment needs your input. According to Deadline, the Anita Hill-led...
WMC Study Reveals Women (Still) Make Up Less Than Half of Non-Acting Emmy Nominees
As the latest “Boxed In” report showed, the overall number of women on both sides of the camera increased in the 2018-2019 television season. Many projects from women creators, such as...
AFI to Study Gender Parity in American Film History with $350K NEH Grant
The American Film Institute (AFI) has received a $350,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and plans to use those funds to conduct “an unprecedented, landmark study...
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Ava DuVernay to Premiere Short Film on OWN, Signs Open Letter About Hollywood’s Pay Gap
Ava DuVernay is set to premiere a new short film on OWN. The Oscar-nominated filmmaker will debut “August 28th: A Day in the Life of a People” on the network behind her TV series,...
Research: New DGA Study Shows Lack of Opportunity for Women and Minority Feature Directors
“From the largest studio tent poles to the smallest indie films, diversity among feature film directors remained low in 2017,” a press release announcing the findings of a comprehensive...
New Research Reveals Film Markets Are a Boys’ Club
The movies accessible to viewers often come down to film markets at major festivals. High-profile fests such as Cannes host markets where sales and distribution professionals present, buy, or pass...
Guest Post: Why I Decided to Cut All the Men Out of “Star Wars” and What It Showed Me
Guest Post by Rebecca Harrison Last week, I published some preliminary findings from my research about gender and race in “Star Wars.” I’ve been a life-long fan of the films and...
New Study Finds Film Reviewers are “Overwhelmingly White and Male”
The importance of underrepresented voices on-screen and behind the scenes is finally gaining traction in mainstream media, but a significant piece of the puzzle is often overlooked: the influence of...
Study: Pay Disparity and Harassment Prevalent in Women-Dominated Crafts Jobs
Hollywood obviously has a women problem — that’s no secret. However, when we discuss gender inequality in show business, higher-profile positions, such as actors, directors, producers,...
Study: The Number of Women Screenwriters in the UK Has Barely Changed in 10 Years
In 2017 women represented 11 percent of the writers on the United States’ top 250 films. They accounted for 33 percent of television writers during the States’ 2016-17 season. Obviously,...
New Research Spotlights Cannes’ Long-Standing Gender Disparity
This weekend 82 women ascended the steps of the Palais de Festival in Cannes to raise awareness around the fest’s history of excluding women directors. Since Cannes kicked off in 1946 only 82...
Quote of the Day: Inclusion Rider Creators on How Hollywood Needs to Change
At long last, it seems like Hollywood is on the brink of substantive change. Stacy Smith, Kalpana Kotagal, and Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni are among those pushing the needle towards a more inclusive film...
Study: Women Underrepresented Behind the Scenes in Off Broadway Plays
The League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW), a not-for-profit that advocates for gender equality in theater, onstage and off, has published its latest study. The report, titled “Women...
Study: Women Directors’ Ranks Increased in 2015, But Only to 1998 Rates
Female filmmakers enjoyed a slight bump last year in their representation in the film industry, with women directors and those in other key roles (writers, producers, executive producers, editors and...
Women Make Small Incremental Gains Onscreen and Behind the Scenes
As the new TV season starts, we get the annual look Boxed In: Employment of Behind-the-Scenes and OnScreen Women in 2012-13 Prime-time Television from Dr. Martha Lauzen at San Diego...
UN Women and Geena Davis to Partner on Global Study on Representation of Females in Family Films
UN Women is partnering with The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media to analyze the representations of female characters in family films globally. This is the first time a study of this nature...
Quote of the Day from CinemaCon
CinemaCon is underway in Las Vegas. It is the annual event where the theatre owners are presented with the blockbusters that they will be showing in their theatres this summer. Catherine...
2012 Celluloid Ceiling Study Results Are In. Spoiler Alert: They Aren’t Great
Following the Sundance Institute & Women in Film’s unveiling of their new groundbreaking study of women directors during the Sundance Film Festival, comes Dr. Martha Lauzen's annual...
Sundance Institute and Women in Film Release Unprecedented Study on Women Directors
This morning, here in Sundance, a new ground breaking study of women directors "Exploring the Barriers and Opportunities for Independent Women Filmmakers" was released. The study is...