When it comes to women and film, the news really hasn’t changed much over the past decade. Women are still significantly underrepresented in the film industry, particularly behind the camera. But this gender disparity isn’t due to a shortage of women filmmakers, it’s due to a perception problem.
In their latest round of research, Women in Film has found that one of the barriers for women directors (among industry decision makers) is a “perceived scarcity of talent pool and experience.” In fact, many of those surveyed couldn’t even name a female director. This is in spite of there being over one thousand female directors registered on the database The Director List, 1300 female directors at the Directors Guild of America, and 45 who have helmed a $25 million movie in the last 13 years.
To combat this misguided and misinformed perception, WIF has launched #52FilmsByWomen, a new campaign to highlight talented women filmmakers. “We believe that 52 Films By Women is a fun way to bring attention to the many talented female filmmakers around the world, and a great way to spark a creative and interactive conversation,” WIF explains.
Participating is super simple… pledge to watch #52FilmsByWomen (one a week for a year), watch a film, and then post about it on social media using the WIF hashtag.
If you need some help figuring out what films to watch, there’s a curated list on GoWatchIt, or you can pull from one of the many lists of films by female writers and directors posted on the WIF website. “Hopefully along the way you’ll find stories that inspire, educate and entertain you!”
Now this is a New Year’s resolution we can get behind.