Calling  the  Shots:  Women  working  as  directors  and  cinematographers  on  British  films  since  2003      (Authors:  Dr  Shelley  Cobb,  Prof  Linda  Ruth  Williams,  Dr  Natalie  Wreyford)  

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Calling  the  Shots:    Women  directors  and  cinematographers  on  British  Films  since  2003    Report   produced   by   AHRC-­‐funded   research   project   ‘Calling   the   Shots:   women   and   contemporary   film  culture  in  the  UK,  2000-­‐2015’.  The  source  data  for  this  report  is  the  BFI’s  Research  and  Statistical  Unit  who  provided  a  list  of  British-­‐qualifying  films  from  2003-­‐2015.    Report  Authors:  Dr  Shelley  Cobb  (Uni.  of  Southampton),  Prof  Linda  Ruth  Williams  (Uni.  of  Exeter),  and  Dr  Natalie  Wreyford  (Uni.  of  Southampton)    Women  made  up  just  14%  of  directors  and  7%  of  cinematographers  on  the  3,452  British  qualifying  film  productions  between  2003  and  2015.      

   There  has  been  little  change  in  the  percentages  of  women  directors  or  cinematographers  in  production  on  British  qualifying  films  since  2003.  Recently  there  has  even  been  a  decline  of  small  gains  made  in  previous  years.  

 

 

Total  %  of  directors  

Men    

Women  

Total  %  of  cinematographers  

Men    

Women  

11   11   12   10   11   17   14   19   12   8   16   11   13  

88   88   88   90   89   83   86   81   88   92   84   89   86  

1   1   1  

0%  

10%  

20%  

30%  

40%  

50%  

60%  

70%  

80%  

90%  

100%  

Percentages  of  directors  

Unknown  

Men  

Women  

 

Calling  the  Shots:  Women  working  as  directors  and  cinematographers  on  British  films  since  2003      (Authors:  Dr  Shelley  Cobb,  Prof  Linda  Ruth  Williams,  Dr  Natalie  Wreyford)  

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     More  worryingly,  our  data  reveals   that  even  when  women  are  employed   in   these  two  key  roles,   they  are  more  likely  to  be  working  alongside  a  second  director  or  cinematographer,  and  frequently  a  man.    Of  the  476  films  with  women  directors,  66  (14%)  have  at  least  one  man  director,  whereas  only  2%  of  films  with  a  man  director  have  at  least  one  woman  director.        

 

 

The   situation   for   women   cinematographers   is   even   more   unequal.   Out   of   237   films   with   women  cinematographers,  55  also  had  at  least  one  man  cinematographer  (23%).  In  stark  contrast,  again,  only  2%  of  the  3270  films  with  a  man  cinematographer  also  employed  at  least  one  woman  cinematographer.  

2   1   2   3   6   6   9   14   7   9   9   7   7  

98   98   98   97   94   94   91  86   93   91   91   93   92  

1   1  

0%  

10%  

20%  

30%  

40%  

50%  

60%  

70%  

80%  

90%  

100%  

Percentages  of  cinematographers  

Unknown  

Men  

Women  

Films  with  women  directors  

All  women  directors  

A  women  director  and  at  least  one  man  director    

Films  with  men  directors  

All  men  directors  

A  man  director  and  at  least  one  woman  director  

 

Calling  the  Shots:  Women  working  as  directors  and  cinematographers  on  British  films  since  2003      (Authors:  Dr  Shelley  Cobb,  Prof  Linda  Ruth  Williams,  Dr  Natalie  Wreyford)  

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A  large  proportion  of  films  with  women  cinematographers  also  have  at  least  one  woman  director  (43%)  or  only  women  directors  (40%).    This  is  significant  given  that  women  direct  only  14%  of  films  overall.  

 

Women  of  colour  

48  of  the  women  directors  are  women  of  colour  (10%  of  all  women  directors,  1%  of  all  directors).  Only  10  women   of   colour   were   employed   as   cinematographers   over   the   12   years   –   just   4%   of   women  cinematographers  (or  0.3%  of  all  cinematographers).  In  addition,  30%  of  these  women  of  colour  who  were  employed  as  cinematographers  were  also  the  director.  This  means  that  50%  of  films  with  women  of  colour  employed  as  cinematographers  were  also  directed  by  a  woman  -­‐  a  very  high  proportion  given  that  women  make  up  less  than  15%  of  directors  of  all  films.  

Films  with  women  cinematographers  

All  women  cinematographers  

A  women  cinematographer  and  at  least  one  man  cinematographer    

Films  with  men  cinematographers  

All  men  cinematographers  

A  man  cinematographer  and  at  least  one  woman  cinematographer  

Films  with  women  cinematographers  

Only  women  directors  

At  least  one  woman  director  and  one  man  director  No  women  directors  

 

Calling  the  Shots:  Women  working  as  directors  and  cinematographers  on  British  films  since  2003      (Authors:  Dr  Shelley  Cobb,  Prof  Linda  Ruth  Williams,  Dr  Natalie  Wreyford)  

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The  ‘other’  category  in  this  chart  (above)  is  a  student  film  that  has  multiple  directors  and  cinematographers.  The  key  point  here  is  that  only  4  men  directors  worked  with  a  women  of  colour  cinematographer  between  2003  and  2015.  Three  of  these  women  were  working  alongside  a  white  man  cinematographer  and  the  other  was  a  Bollywood  co-­‐production.  Since   the  percentages  are  so   low,   the   following  charts  present   the  actual  number  of  women  of  colour  working  as  directors  and  cinematographers  by  racial  background:    

 

 

Women  of  Colour  employed  as  cinematographers  

Directed  by  a  white  woman  Directed  by  a  woman  of  colour  Directed  by  the  cinematographer  herself  Other  Directed  by  a  white  man  Directed  by  a  man  of  colour  

Women  directors  2003-­‐2015  

White  women  

Black  women  

South  Asian  women  

East  Asian  women  

Unknown  

Women  cinematographers  2003-­‐2015  

White  women  

Black  women  

South  Asian  women  

East  Asian  women  

Unknown