A new study from the European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO) reveals that women “represent only a quarter of all film directors working in the European film industry,” per Deadline. Even with recent European women-directed titles like Alice Diop’s “Saint Omer” and Carla Simón’s “Alcarràs” making a splash on the festival circuit and beyond this year, it’s important to remember that there’s still a long way to go towards equality in the industry.

Examining European features produced between 2017 to 2021 and released in European cinemas during the same period, the EAO study considered the gender breakdown of key feature film positions including director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, composer, and cast. “Women are still poorly represented among professionals working in key roles behind the camera,” the report details. “In all categories, the proportion of women among active professionals is growing slowly and did not substantially change during the time frame [analyzed].” During the period considered, “women only accounted for 25% of all directors of European feature films. The gender gap was even more visible among composers and cinematographers, where women only represented 10% of the workforce.”

Behind the scenes, women were best represented in producing, making up 34 percent of the active producers in Europe. On-screen, women accounted for just 29 percent of lead roles.

“In other findings, the report unveiled that female directors had worked on average on fewer feature films over the period than their male counterparts, so women made up 22% of the directors working on feature films, even if they represented 25% of the active director pool,” the source clarifies.

Check out the complete report here.