Figure drops to just 3.2% for blockbuster fare, according to damning new survey from the Directors Guild of America

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Just 6.4% of Hollywood movies were directed by women in 2013 and 2014, according to a damning new survey, which is likely to heap further pressure on the world’s largest film industry to improve diversity.

The survey by the Directors Guild of America (DGA) also found that just 1.3% of movies were directed by ethnic minority females, who make up close to 20% of the general US population.

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Just 11.2% of films were directed by men from ethnic minorities, while a staggering 82.4% were overseen by white men. Of films that made more than $100m at the North American box office – what one might call blockbusters – a barely-believable 96.8% were directed by men.

The new report follows a similar DGA survey of television directors in October, which also found poor levels of diversity.

“The numbers paint a grim outlook for diverse film directors – women in particular,” said DGA diversity task force co-chair Bethany Rooney. “Much like our recent reports on television director diversity, we hope this report will put a magnifying glass on a system that makes it disproportionately challenging for talented women and minority film directors to get hired.”

US equal opportunities officials began a historic probe into gender discrimination in Hollywood in October. Agents for the Equal Employments Opportunity Commission (EEOC) want to ensure Hollywood studios are cleaving to the terms of the US Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on gender, race, colour, religion and national origin.

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“What you will see is what happens when industry employers – studios and production companies – do little to address this issue head on,” warned DGA president Paris Barclay. “The DGA, by detailing the state of director hiring with the precision of our data, hopes to draw further attention to this serious matter so that industry employers can develop concrete director diversity plans.”

Barclay also said filmgoers were losing out due to the homogenous nature of Hollywood’s current creative pool. “What this report does not reflect is what people who love film – even our culture as a whole – are missing, when such a disproportionate percentage of films are directed by one gender or one ethnicity,” she said. “Unfortunately, we don’t have a metric for that.”

Hollywood discrimination against female actors has also been a hot topic in 2015. Patricia Arquette highlighted pay inequality in February during her best supporting actress acceptance speech at the Oscars, and three-time Oscar-winner Meryl Streep later revealed she had written to every member of the US Congress calling for the introduction of new equality laws – receiving just five replies. Stars such as Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, Jessica Chastain, Romola Garai, Geena Davis and Amanda Seyfried have also raised the issue of Hollywood sexism.