Women make up roughly half of all executives in animation, but a study released Monday says the numbers fall significantly when it comes to female directors and other leadership roles in the industry.
The study by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative and the nonprofit advocacy group Women in Animation said that in the past 12 years, only 3% of animated film directors were women and only one, "Kung Fu Panda 2" director Jennifer Yuh Nelson, was a woman of color.
In some areas, like producing, animation has better female representation than live-action films. The study found that women made up 37% of producers on the 120 animated films surveyed going back to 2007. On live-action features, women make up about 15% of producers.
"The proportion of women in this leadership role in animation, and the progress made in the last decade indicates that there are spaces where the industry is taking inclusion seriously and affecting change," said initiative director Stacy L. Smith in a statement.
Women also made up 13% of directors of popular animated television shows from 2018, the only year covered by the study. But women of color were underrepresented in all areas.
Women are also outnumbered in below-the-line roles like head of story, lead animators and art directors, the study found.
And in front of the camera, only 20 of the top 120 animated features across the past 12 years had a female lead or co-lead. Of those, three, "Moana," ''The Princess and the Frog," and "Smurfs: The Lost Village," had a woman of color as the protagonist
Marge Dean, the president of Women in Animation, says a better understanding of the numbers will help push the industry toward achieving 50-50 gender representation by 2025.
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