By Lynn Elber, Television Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --More women are being hired to direct TV episodes but the numbers remain stagnant for directors of color, according to an industry guild study.
Women directed a record 25 percent of episodic television in the 2017-18 season, an increase of 4 percent from the previous season, according to the Directors Guild of America study released Wednesday.
African-Americans directed 13 percent of series TV in 2017-18, unchanged from last season, the study found. Asian-Americans at 6 percent and Latinos 5 percent were up one percentage point each from 2016-17.
“The bright spot here is that the doors are finally opening wider for women, who are seeing more opportunities to direct television,” guild president Thomas Schlamme said in a statement. “But it’s disappointing the same can’t be said for directors of color.”
The series “SMILF,” ‘’One Day at a Time” and “Queen Sugar” were among the standouts for gender and ethnic diversity in their directing ranks. Among studios, Disney-ABC, Twentieth Century Fox, Lionsgate and CBS held the top four spots in the study.
The annual report examined 4,300 episodes produced in the 2017-2018 season, which the guild said represented a drop from the all-time high of nearly 4,500 episodes in the season before.
For women, there was a disparity in opportunities based on ethnicity. The share of episodes directed by white women rose 3 points to 19 percent, while women of color notched a one-point increase.
White men saw their share of TV series directing jobs drop from 61 percent to 56 percent, the study found. Among all men, the share of jobs dropped four points to 75 percent.
According to U.S. Census Bureau figures, men represent 49.2 percent of the population, with white men at about one-third. Latinos make up 18.1 percent of the country, African-Americans 13.4 percent and Asian-Americans 5.8 percent.
A guild report released in August found “insider hiring” to be hindering the move toward diversity. Writers, actors or others already connected with a TV series can be “gifted” one-time directing jobs, blocking career progress for women and people of color, the guild said.
In the TV seasons between 2009 and 2016, nearly 70 percent of first-time directing assignments went to industry insiders, with white men getting three-quarters of the jobs.
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More