“Considering that only one woman directed a studio film this summer (Lana Wachowski was a director of ‘Jupiter Ascending’),” Martha M. Lauzen, the center’s executive director, said in a statement, “the opportunities provided by independent films are crucial for women filmmakers and their careers.”

Women accounted for 26% of directors, writers and producers of feature-length American independent films that screened at festivals in the last year, the same as the previous study in 2011-12. But women comprised just 16% of the key behind-the-scenes roles in 2013’s top-grossing domestic films.

According to the study’s findings, women made up 28% of documentary directors and 18% directors working on independent narrative features, compared to a mere 6% of last year’s top-grossing films.

The study drew its findings from films that screened at 23 major domestic film festivals — including Sundance, Telluride, SXSW and Tribeca — that took place between May 2013 and April 2014.