The Directors Guild of America on Thursday unveiled a new Feature Film Diversity & Inclusion report, which spotlights the limited progress that’s been made in the feature space over the last five years, when it comes to the hiring of women and people of color, in stark contrast to what’s transpired in TV.
Of the 1,026 DGA-covered features released theatrically from 2018-2022, just 16% were helmed by women, with 17% being helmed by directors of color. Directing jobs for women ranged across the five-year period from a low of 12% in 2018 to a high of 22% in 2020. Similarly, directors of color ranged from a low of 13% in 2019 to a high of 25% in 2021.
In comparing the data for 2018-2022 to that of the DGA’s last report for 2013-2017, it’s evident that women directors have seen only incremental growth in opportunity, up 8% from the previous five-year period. Directing jobs for people of color were up just 4%.
In TV between 2014 to 2021, the DGA revealed last summer, change has been much more significant. Episodes directed by women and people of color more than doubled during this period, going up from 16% in both cases in 2014 to 38% and 34%, respectively, during the Covid-impacted 2020-2021 season.
Feature-world analysis of hiring at different budget levels revealed that women directed 13% of High Budget and 18% of Low Budget releases from 2018-2022, with people of color directing 17% of both. Across the same period, white women helmed 11% of features. Men of color held around 14% of feature directing jobs, with women of color taking up just 4%.
Perhaps the only bright spot in the data was the fact that over the last five years, there’s been an increase in hiring of women and people of color to direct their first DGA-covered feature release. Of the 382 films from first-timers between 2018 and 2022, 27% were directed by women and 20% by people of color. While there are clearly systemic issues that need addressing, the report also noted that opportunity for diverse filmmakers has not been bolstered by an overall slide in feature film production, from 292 DGA-covered theatrical releases in 2018 to 162 in 2022. The goal is, of course, for the DGA to see the steady upward trend in the hiring of women and POC directors, which would signal sustainable growth.
In a statement on the D&I report, DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter acknowledged that “the DGA’s latest five-year analysis reveals the continuing systemic underrepresentation of women and Directors of color in directing features. Though there has been significant progress in episodic television hiring, feature film hiring continues to be both inconsistent from year-to-year with little or no growth over the last five years.”
Glatter added that “the DGA remains united in our commitment to continue pushing for meaningful action from producers that will increase access and representation that aligns with our diverse membership.”
In putting together its newest report, the Directors Guild made slight alterations to its methodology, including all DGA-covered features with a theatrical release from 2018-2022, including day and date releases and regardless of domestic Box Office returns. The report for 2013-2017 had looked at all DGA and non-DGA covered theatrical feature releases for women, and only DGA-covered theatrical feature releases for directors of color, as ethnicity data for non-DGA projects could not be verified. In the case of both groups, the last report also only examined theatrical releases with a domestic box office of $250,000 and above.
While the change of methodology broadened the data assessed by the DGA, it had no impact on hiring statistics for directors of color. The change incrementally increased the percentage of films directed by women for the five-year period from 12% to 16%, which accounts for approximately half of the total increase for women directors from the 2013-2017 report to that of 2018-2022. Documentaries, animated films, and re-releases were not looked at, as part of the report.
Looking ahead, the DGA will continue to collect data regarding additional genres and underrepresented communities where further analysis may illuminate hiring trends.