Entertainment
Study: Women Find Little Change Off Camera in Hollywood
In this Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2014 file photo, Ava DuVernay, left, director of the film “Selma,” and cast member, David Oyelowo, who plays Martin Luther King Jr., pose together at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
(Reuters) – The number of women working behind the camera in Hollywood’s top-grossing films has changed little over the past decade despite a slight uptick last year, an annual study released on Tuesday has found.
The “Celluloid Ceiling” study from San Diego State University’s Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film said 7 percent of the top 250 films at the U.S. box office in 2014 were directed by a woman, a 1 percentage point increase from 2013.
“It’s not really moving much one way or the other,” said study author Martha Lauzen, who added that the number of films directed by women in 2014 has declined to 7 percent from 9 percent since the study began 1998.
Seventeen percent of key off-screen figures – which includes directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors and cinematographers – were women last year, the study found, also a 1 percentage point rise from 2013 but unchanged from 1998.
