Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. When it comes to who gets the most amount of employment opportunities in the film industry, that “boss” largely takes the form of white men. Believe it or not!
Deadline has the grisly details on the lack of representation and equality that still exists in Hollywood today. Despite proven data that indicates that stories with authentic cultural depictions will typically lead to greater profits, not even the allure of naked capitalism can sway old-school gatekeepers from their stuck-in-the-mud ways, apparently. According to both The Celluloid Ceiling and the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, the number-crunching from 2022 as a whole point towards a glaring lack of progress made among women and people of color.
Looking at the top-100 highest grossing domestic films, only 11% were helmed by filmmakers who happen to be women — a decrease of 1% from the previous year. When expanded to the top-250, that percentage rises to 18% … which is still only an increase of a paltry 1% from 2021. When accounting for the number of women who made up directors, writers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers, the 24% figure once again represents a 1% decline. Not surprisingly, the USC study titled “Inclusion in the Directors Chair” confirms that underrepresented filmmakers in general (which includes people of color) dropped a shocking 6.6% to 20.7%. For context, the amount of people who would identify by this exact same criteria in the United States population at large translates to 40.7%.
Bleak!