The gender divide in the British film industry was explored in depth through the Calling the Shots project led by Dr Shelley Cobb. Data revealed that women were severely underrepresented in key filmmaking roles, with the project seeking to raise awareness and tackle endemic industry issues relating to sexism.
The British film industry has a history of gender inequality, where male directors dominate and therefore reap the critical and commercial benefits. This inequality was laid bare by Dr Shelley Cobb in her project, Calling the Shots, which built on gender data from British films.
The Calling the Shots (CtS) research team interviewed 59 women working in one of the six key filmmaking roles – director, writer, producer, executive producer, cinematographer, and editor – who provided evidence of some of the gender barriers they have experienced, from sexual harassment, to losing their job whilst pregnant, to inappropriate questions about childcare.
The interviews highlighted successes women have introduced to combat sexism in the industry, such as on-set crèches, or having a female producer lead the hiring process.
The collection of interviews, which explore in detail the significance of women’s work and experiences in 21st century British filmmaking, are now housed in the British Broadcasting Entertainment Communications and Theatre Union’s British Entertainment History Project.
The project’s first data report was launched at a public BFI Southbank event in 2016, which was open to the public and attended by key industry executives, producers, filmmakers, guild leaders, union leaders and activists. The CtS team presented their data on gender behind the scenes on British films made in 2015 and had five high-profile women from the film sector respond, ending with an open Q&A.
The data revealed that, of all the films in production during 2015, 25 per cent had no women in any of the six key roles, and women made up only 20 per cent of all the workers in those roles. The cinematographer role was the least represented, with women comprising only 7 per cent.
The report also showed BAME women were doubly discriminated against, as they accounted for only 1 to 2 per cent of each role, except for cinematographers where there were no BAME women.
The audience overwhelmingly reacted with enthusiasm and determination to make a change. The research was instrumental in enabling BFI’s Diversity and Inclusion office to persuade the institute’s executives and lawyers of the need for, and value of, a target policy.
In 2018 Ben Roberts, Director of the BFI Film Fund, announced the BFI’s new gender and diversity targets for directors, writers, and producers of films supported by their Film Fund. These targets included:
These were underpinned by a commitment to monitor and report decisions annually across the writers, directors and producers of supported projects in terms of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and disability.
In 2018 the CtS team presented new data at Cannes Film Festival networking events hosted by Women in Film and TV UK (WFTV-UK). Their evidence showed that co-productions – films funded by both the UK and at least one other nation – have more than twice as many women directors than all domestic and inward investment (usually US-funded) films.
Further data showed that the proportion of women producers reached over 40 per cent on films with a budget of less than £500,000 – significantly higher than the 27 per cent of women producers on all British films.
Women producers stated that these reports made them newly aware that they were not 50 per cent of the workforce as they had thought, and that there were still barriers to work on bigger-budget films.
The CtS team also shared data showing that when a woman producer is on a film from the beginning, that film is more likely to have a woman director, writer, editor and cinematographer than a film with only men producers.
After both the BFI and Cannes events, high profile women producers and directors, reported that the research encouraged them to seek out other women to fulfil key creative roles on their projects.
The CtS team also held events for film production students at the University of Winchester, London Film School and London College of Communication.
The research led Cobb to be invited to become a member of the Media Reform Coalition, to broaden their scope beyond news and current events. Additionally, Cobb and Dr Natalie Wreyford were commissioned by the Film and TV Charity to write a report detailing evidence of the impact of COVID-19 on the film and television workforce to help develop their £2m recovery fund.
Roberts, Ben. (May 2015) ‘Female Film Directors Must Get Equal Funding – But They Mustn’t Be All White’, Guardian .
Roberts, Ben (11 October 2017), ‘ How and why we’re changing the film fund’ , BFI Network News, 11 October.