So first of all the confession… my trip to the Cannes Lions this year definitely veered more towards the networking side of things rather than being a wholly educational tour. However the one big thing that I do take away from the festival is the issue of diversity, and in particular the gender divide within my field of cinema and film. On a wider level the festival recognised that creativity cannot flourish without diversity, and this year the diversity conversation was more pronounced than ever. Amongst a number of sessions aimed at tackling the subject, Dame Helen Mirren talked about the need for more visible and meaningful diversity while the P&G discussion on gender equality featured Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg. However for me, the most sobering discussion came at the SAWA (the Golbal Cinema Advertising Association) forum, dedicated to women in cinema.
The session featured a heavyweight panel of Claudia Gonzalez Romo (Chief Global Advocacy – UNICEF), Kathryn Jacob OBE (CEO – Pearl & Dean), Kate Stanners (Global Chief Creative Officer – Saatchi & Saatchi) and Gillian Armstrong. After the initial pleasantries, Gillian took centre stage. And for those who don’t know Gillian Armstrong, her films and documentaries have screened at Cannes, Berlin and Sundance. Her credits include “My Brilliant Career”, “Starstruck”, “Charlote Grey” and “Little Women”. She’s been nominated for Academy and Golden Globe Awards as well as receiving countless accolades from the Australian Film Institute, the Film Critics Circle of Australia and the British Academy. Oh and she also has a Women In Hollywood Icon award in recognition for her contribution to the film industry. In short, Gillian knows her stuff. She made it very clear that she’d travelled all the way from Australia simply to tell the Lions audience that we need to do more for the female imbalance in the industry. The first big shock to the system – only 9% of commercials are directed by women. As she said “there is an unconscious bias from men and women about what a creative looks like – and we think it looks like a man in a baseball cap”. Absolutely spot on! Then moving onto film, only 14% of movies are directed by females. Despite all the editorials, the speeches and the handwringing, things aren’t getting better for women in Hollywood. On the face of it at least, they’re actually getting worse.
I was truly struck by this. I work in film and discuss the content shown in Australian cinemas on a daily basis. Yet these figures – though clearly there – had never truly registered for me. Sadly (and this isn’t an excuse) but as a white, middle aged male I just hadn’t recognised this issue staring everyone in the face. After further research the picture actually becomes even bleaker – women comprised just 7% of all directors working on the 250 highest-grossing releases in 2016, a decline of -2%. And these results actually come after two years of debate in Hollywood about the lack of opportunities for women to rise up through the studio system. It’s a conversation that has drawn the likes of Jennifer Lawrence, Natalie Portman, Elizabeth Banks, Jessica Chastain and others, all of whom have publicly decried the lack of pay equality for women and the dearth of female filmmakers.
The picture isn’t much brighter for women in other behind-the-camera professions. Women accounted for 24% of all producers working on the top 250 films of 2016, a -2% decline from 2015. They made up 17% of all editors, down -5% year on year. Some 4% of sound designers were women, a drop of -1%. And they comprised 5% of all cinematographers, a slide of -1% from the previous year. 34% of the films had no female producers, 79% lacked a female editor, 97% of films had no female sound designers, and 96% didn’t have a female cinematographer. It’s a disgraceful situation.
There were also fewer high-profile projects that were overseen by women than in past years. In 2015, women like Banks and Sam Taylor-Johnson directed “Pitch Perfect 2” and “Fifty Shades of Grey,” respectively, two of the year’s biggest hits. However last year there weren’t the same number of projects with blockbuster potential handed over to women. Jodie Foster (“Money Monster”) and Patricia Riggen (“Miracles From Heaven”) were two of the more commercially successful female directors in 2016, while Andrea Arnold (“American Honey”) and Ava DuVernay (“The 13th”) oversaw critical favourites.
For me, one of the biggest points to all of this is the audience. If both Hollywood movies and audio visual commercials had a significant male majority watching then perhaps there could be justification (I’m clutching at straws!). However there isn’t. All the work we have at Val Morgan shows that women routinely make up around half of the audience across the blockbuster spectrum, even on movies such as “Fast & Furious”, traditionally assumed to be heavily male. And this then translates to the commercial audience – on average 50% female, with women responsible for up to 80% of the household purchasing decisions. The numbers really don’t stack up…
However as I delved deeper still into the issue there are a few rays of light. Women are working in greater numbers in independent film. Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Film Festival scheduled a slate with 40% of its films directed by women. While from a Hollywood perspective, a glance down the release schedule for 2017 shows greater diversity than last year, at least in terms of top-grossing pictures. There are several high-profile releases, such as Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman,” Sofia Coppola’s “The Beguiled,” and Trish Sie’s “Pitch Perfect 3” that should serve as a reminder of women’s talents behind the camera. And at the same time, major companies like Lucasfilm and Marvel have publically said that they are committed to finding female directors for upcoming releases.
So back to the panel – they’re in agreement that the picture isn’t great but action is slowly taking place. The question was then posed, what can we all do to redress this imbalance? Gillian said that change firstly needs to happen with the individual. Women are often knocked back at the start of their careers when self-esteem is unstable. The industry needs to teach women to talk themselves up, to give them an outlet to showcase their ability from an early age. There’s nothing dedicated to this at the moment. Businesses then need to encourage women verbally and through recognition both at the start of their career and at key points such as returning from maternity leave. And agencies, film studios and production houses need to be proactive with looking for female director options. Companies that commission ads must ask for a female director. It needs to come from the source.
Overall I left Cannes dazed (that’ll be the rose), confused (by how bad this situation actually is) but also hopeful. Yes, the issue of diversity isn’t being tackled quickly enough. And some of the trends within the film industry paint a depressing picture. However I now believe that change is in the air. More and more people are now recognising the issue that a lack of diversity presents and this is the most significant point. It’s now mainstream. And for us to move forward creatively and commercially, the model needs to change. The power really is in the peoples hands.
