Friday Figures - 28 Feb

Female professionals in European film production

On average, women represented only 12% of music composers active in European feature films between 2019 and 2023, vs. 8% between 2015 and 2018.

The average share of assignments for female composers was only 10% as, on average female composers worked on fewer films than men. The share was slightly higher for documentaries (13%) than for live-action and animation films.

When women worked in teams, it was in the majority of cases in partnership with a male colleague (within gender-balanced or male-driven teams). As a result, only 9% of feature films in the sample had a female-driven team* of composers.

Gender inequality obviously varies between positions. The share of women professionals is higher for producers (31%), editors (31%) and writers (29%), close to the average for directors (25%) and significantly lower for cinematographers (12%) and composers (10%).

Female professionals seem to be more represented in the positions where several professionals work together, as it is the case for producers and writers. Conversely, when the position is generally held by only one professional (e.g. directors, composers, or cinematographers), women tend to be more under-represented.

However, even for positions with several professionals in charge of writing or producing a film, the teams are by far led by male professionals. For example, in 2022, while female writers accounted for 29% of the writing of films, female-driven teams accounted for only 21% of all writing teams (vs. 66% for male-driven teams).

Read the report here.