When we read reports like this one, we get the feeling that organisations like WIFT are all the more vital. Researchers from the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council project, 'Calling the Shots: women and contemporary film culture in the UK', found that women remain historically under-represented as directors and cinematographers. There were 3,452 British films in production between 2003 - 2015, and just 13% of all directors and 7% of all cinematographers on those films were women.
The research, lead by Dr Shelley Cobb (above left) and Professor Linda Ruth Williams (above right) showed that over the twelve-year period, the percentage of women directors and cinematographers increased only a tiny amount: directors by only 2 percentage points from 11% to 13%, and cinematographers by only 5 percentage points from 2% to 7%. So it looks like inequality in the British film industry is scarcely better than in Hollywood, where Professor Martha Lauzen's Annual Celluloid Ceiling Report has shown that between 1998 and 2015 there was no increase in the percentage of women directors (from 9% in 1998), while women cinematographers increased from 4% in 1998 to 6% in 2015.
Read more about the project here >>
IMAGE / southampton.ac.uk