You know that only dudes go to the movies, right? That might sound ridiculous — because it is ridiculous and untrue — but that’s a sexist rule of thumb that studio execs still very much follow. Hollywood buys into a lot of backwards myths, especially in regard to women directors and the movies they make. A recent feature at Slated dedicated itself to identifying and disproving three of Hollywood’s most insidious myths about female filmmakers.
The Filmonomics @ Slated team crunched the numbers and debunked three myths Hollywood relies upon to deny female directors studio films. The myths are:
- Only directors with a hit independent film (or feature directing experience at all) can be considered for a studio film.
- Male directors are simply safer financial bets for studio-sized films.
- There’s not enough of a “pipeline” of “qualified” female directors.
In response to Myth #1, Slated found that 58.3 percent of directors from 2010 to 2015 “took an alternate career path to land their first studio film… unless they were female.” About two-thirds of women directors needed a breakout indie film before being hired on a studio project, compared to 40.5 percent of male directors. In other words, women have to follow the independent film rule; men don’t.
Myth #2 suggests that male directors represent less of a financial risk. Those numbers indicate that the return on investment (ROI) on female-helmed projects is almost the same as the ROI on male-helmed films. The stats include “a reasonable margin of error” since there are much fewer women-directed films available to study.
Finally, the source took on the third myth, which references the lack of “qualified” female directors. The truth is that there are plenty of women who are able and willing to take on studio directing gigs. From 2010 to 2015, Slated found that “the studios bet on one in three male indie directors, but only one in eight female indie directors.” That means that for every woman who is hired to direct a studio project, there are seven other qualified women who were not hired. There’s a pipeline of female directors — the studios just aren’t taking advantage of it.
“The evidence is obvious on its face,” Slated writes in conclusion, “the industry needs to do a far better job of cultivating new and existing female directing talent.” Well said. Here’s hoping that some execs listen and decide to put their trust in up and coming female directors to follow in Patty Jenkins, Ava DuVernay, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Niki Caro, and Anna Boden’s footsteps.
Read all of “Gender Justice: Debunking 3 Myths Hollywood Still Believes About Female Directors” over at Slated.
