Bafta awards 2020: How male is the film industry? - BBC News

The Baftas have been criticised after no non-white actors were nominated, but there's also been criticism over gender representation - no women were nominated in the best director category for the seventh year in a row.

This comes a day after the Golden Globes had an all-male list of best director nominees.

Bafta boss Amanda Berry said she was "very disappointed" by the lack of diversity.

So, how bad is it when it comes to gender?

Getty

Women directors at Bafta

In the last 10 years there have been 50 nominations for Best Director

Source: Bafta

Ms Berry did point to female directors being nominated in other categories, for example for short films.

That's the Baftas - but what about the rest of the industry?

Martha Lauzen, director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, at San Diego State University, has been tracking women's employment in the film industry since 1998.

In 2019, just 13% of directors on the 250 highest-grossing films were female, her report on the "celluloid ceiling" found.

And, on these top 250 films, women made up:

19% of writers
27% of producers
21% of executive producers
23% of editors
5% of cinematographers

Although these figures represent "recent historic highs", there hasn't been a great deal of movement during the 22 years Dr Lauzen has conducted the study.

For comparison, in 1998, on the top 250 films, women made up 9% of directors and:

13% of writers
24% of producers
18% of executive producers
20% editors
4% of cinematographers

Looking just at the 100 highest-grossing films, the proportion of female directors tripled between 2018 and 2019, from 4% to 12% - but the figures remain low.

Dr Lauzen told advocacy group Women and Hollywood it was "odd to talk about reaching historic highs when women remain so far from parity".

And although the numbers had "moved in a positive direction... men continue to outnumber women four to one in key behind-the-scenes roles".

The Women and Hollywood site's news editor, Rachel Montpelier, also pointed out "there was no change in the number of women working in key off-screen roles since 2018".

Meanwhile, research commissioned by Directors UK, the professional association of UK screen directors, found on 2,591 UK films released between 2005 and 2014, 13.6% of directors were women.

UK film students are broadly 50% male and 50% female, according to the research, and as students enter the industry, the split is also about half and half. So it is as they progress further that the problem emerges.

The report, published in 2016, suggested men were more likely to hire other men, while a lack of female role models may make it harder for women to progress, "sustain[ing] the outdated, unconscious bias of the individuals within the industry".

The "archetypal director" was seen as male and so industry professionals "assume that men are better at directing than women", the Directors UK report said.

This in turn results in "fewer women being hired and fewer films being directed by women".

The drop-off in representation at higher levels is reflected in other European countries.

A report looking at seven European countries including the UK found that, in 2013, 44% of graduates entering the film industry were women, compared with 24% of working directors.

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