The Directors Guild of America released a study about diversity among filmmakers for 2017, and surprisingly (not really) the numbers are virtually the same as in previous years. However, unlike previous years, the DGA President is sick of the trend and is demanding change.
In the new report published, the DGA found that of the 651 feature films released theatrically, which includes limited release and those that grossed under $250,000, only 16% were directed by females. And if you look at all the films that earned at least $250,000 at the box office, women made up 12% of directors, while people of color accounted for only 10%. Overall, these numbers run similar to previous years.
“It’s outrageous that we’re once again seeing such a lack of opportunity for women and people of color to direct feature films. Our new study shows that discriminatory practices are still rampant across every corner of the feature film business,” said DGA President Thomas Schlamme. “These numbers hit home how the chips are stacked against women and people of color. We dug into our proprietary data to see if we could isolate areas that were bright spots or especially problematic. But as we kept going, it became clear that no matter how you slice the 2017 numbers, the outcome is virtually the same. There is a misconception that things are better in the smaller, indie film world, but that’s simply not the case. From financing and hiring, to distribution and agent representation – every aspect of the entire system disadvantages women and people of color.”
“Change is long overdue,” continued Schlamme. “Inclusion is a fight we’ve been fighting with the industry for four decades now, and it’s been an uphill battle to get them to change their hiring practices. In our two most recent negotiations, we pushed for the industry to adopt the Rooney Rule into their hiring practices, but they wouldn’t budge on the issue. Neither will we – we are committed to keeping at this for as long as it takes.”
For those film fans that aren’t also NFL fans, the “Rooney Rule” is a policy that was implemented by the NFL that states that for certain job openings, it is mandatory to interview at least one minority candidate. This doesn’t mean that they’ll be hired, however, in the years since the “Rooney Rule’s” inception, the number of people of color hired for positions has risen greatly.
But it appears that the DGA President feels like he’s fighting an uphill battle, with no end in sight. However, we have seen in the last year, more high-profile directing gigs going to females, so maybe when the 2018 numbers are released, we’ll see an increase.
That being said, these are statistics that the DGA probably hoped they wouldn’t have to report.