The film industry systematically discriminates against female directors because they are considered riskier than men, a study has found.
Despite the success of directors such as Phyllida Lloyd (Mamma Mia!), Andrea Arnold (Wuthering Heights) and Sam Taylor-Johnson (Fifty Shades of Grey), almost 97 per cent of British directors of big-budget films are men.
A report commissioned by Directors UK found that just as many women as men aspired to be directors at graduate level but their numbers declined as they tried to advance.
Unlike jobs in science, where there are fewer women at the outset, the proportion of female film students is 50 per cent. The number of those who go on to direct a short film is 27 per cent. Of those, 25 per cent get their short film accepted by a film festival.
The next stage is low-budget feature films (costing less than £500,000 to make), of which 16 per cent are directed by women. Less than 13 per cent of mid-budget films (£1 million to £10 million) are directed by women and the proportion for big-budget films of £30 million or more is 3 per cent.
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Susanna White, who directed the second Nanny McPhee film and whose television credits include Parade’s End and Generation Kill, said that the situation would not improve without intervention from organisations such as the British Film Institute (BFI).
“If you’re a man you’re six times more likely to make it than if you’re a woman – it’s ludicrous in 2016,” she told the Today programme on Radio 4. “What we’re proposing is that publicly funded films have a 50 per cent split by 2020.”
The report, compiled by Stephen Follows, a film producer, concluded that there was no evidence of deliberate exclusion of women, but there was “unconscious bias” caused by a lack of formal career structure and a rigid stereotype of male directors.
Amanda Nevill, chief executive of the BFI, which requires applicants to meet diversity standards, said did not believe that that a quota was the solution.
