CUT OUT OF THE PICTURE A study of gender inequality amongst film directors in the UK film industry By Stephen Follows and Alexis Kreager, with Eleanor Gomes Commissioned by Directors UK Published May 2016 Contents 1. Welcome ...............................................................................................................................4 1.1 Introduction from the authors ........................................................................................................... 4 1.2 Foreword – Beryl Richards, Directors UK ......................................................................................... 5 1.3 About Directors UK ............................................................................................................................ 5 1.4 About the authors .............................................................................................................................. 6 2. Executive Summary ...............................................................................................................7 Section A: The Current Landscape for Female directors ....................................................................... 12 3. Female directors within the UK Film Industry ........................................................................ 13 3.1 The percentage of UK directors who are women .......................................................................... 14 3.2 The issue over time .......................................................................................................................... 16 3.3 Career progression for female film directors ................................................................................. 18 3.4 The budget level of female-directed UK films ................................................................................ 20 3.5 The genre of female-directed UK films ........................................................................................... 21 3.6 The quality of films and female directors ...................................................................................... 23 3.7 UK Box office income for films by female directors ...................................................................... 25 4. Female representation in the UK film industry ...................................................................... 26 4.1 Women in key creative roles on UK feature films .......................................................................... 27 4.2 Women crew members on UK feature films .................................................................................. 28 4.3 Female representation among department heads and their crew ............................................... 29 4.4 Female representation in senior roles ............................................................................................ 31 4.5 The effect of a woman director on female representation overall ............................................... 32 4.6 Changes in female representation on UK feature films over time ................................................ 34 5. Female directors in publicly-funded films............................................................................. 36 5.1 Female directors within UK publicly-funded feature films ............................................................ 36 5.2 Female directors within UK regional film funding schemes ......................................................... 40 6. Female directors in related sectors ...................................................................................... 43 6.1 Female directors of British short films ........................................................................................... 44 6.2 Female directors of films shortlisted at major international film festivals .................................. 45 6.3 Female directors within the UK television industry ....................................................................... 48 6.4 Women within the UK theatre industry ........................................................................................... 50 6.5 Female directors in European film .................................................................................................. 52 6.6 Women within UK film degree courses .......................................................................................... 54 Section B: Why Are So Few Female Directors Hired? ............................................................................ 58 7. Routes into Directing ........................................................................................................... 59 7.1 The disappearance of women film directors ................................................................................. 60 7.2 The path to becoming a professional film director in the UK ....................................................... 61 “Cut Out Of The Picture: A Study Of Female Directors In The UK Film Industry” © Stephen Follows 2016 2 7.3 Education .......................................................................................................................................... 62 7.4 Entering the film or television industry ........................................................................................... 63 7.5 Gaining credibility............................................................................................................................. 65 7.6 The first directing gig ....................................................................................................................... 67 7.7 Career development ......................................................................................................................... 69 7.8 Summary of the route ...................................................................................................................... 72 8. Why the gender disparity exists ........................................................................................... 73 8.1 Individual Bias .................................................................................................................................. 74 8.2 Systemic Issues ............................................................................................................................... 79 Section C: Fixing the Gender Inequality issue ...................................................................................... 86 9. Moving forward ................................................................................................................... 87 9.1 The impact of female directors ....................................................................................................... 88 9.2 Why action is needed ....................................................................................................................... 89 9.3 Recommended solutions................................................................................................................. 90 9.6 A word of caution ............................................................................................................................. 99 Section D: Appendix ......................................................................................................................... 100 10. Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 101 10.1 Film Dataset ................................................................................................................................... 101 10.2 Data Sources .................................................................................................................................. 102 10.3 Budget Data .................................................................................................................................... 103 10.4 Career Progression and Genre ...................................................................................................... 103 10.5 The quality of UK films .................................................................................................................. 106 10.6 Box office income for UK films ..................................................................................................... 114 10.7 Directors Dataset ........................................................................................................................... 117 10.8 Director Interviews ......................................................................................................................... 118 10.9 British Council’s British Film Database ........................................................................................ 118 10.10 International film festivals ......................................................................................................... 119 10.11 Channel 4 and Film 4 ................................................................................................................. 120 11. Additional findings ............................................................................................................ 121 11.1 Overview of government action in UK film industry .................................................................... 121 11.2 Do cinema audiences care about the gender of a film’s director? ............................................. 123 11.3 The relationship between students and industry employment