Last week I looked at the most employed people in the UK film industry. This week I thought I would merge this approach with a topic I have written a lot about previously, namely gender. I took a look at the women in the British film industry who have the most credits over the last 10 years across all UK films budgeted over £500k. In summary…
- 11% of the people who have directed two or more UK films 2003-13 are women
- Women in the British film industry are far better represented in producing than in writing and directing
- 25 of the top 104 UK producers are women
- Novelist J.K. Rowling is the woman with the most writing credits in UK film 2003-13
Directors
Just 11% of the people who have directed two or more UK films 2003-13 are women.
# female directors | # all directors | Name | Credits |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 7 | Mary McGuckian | 5 |
2 | 34 | Gurinder Chadha | 3 |
2 | 34 | Debbie Isitt | 3 |
2 | 34 | Sally Potter | 3 |
2 | 34 | Penny Woolcock | 3 |
2 | 34 | Andrea Arnold | 3 |
7 | 56 | Mairi Fraser Sutherland | 2 |
7 | 56 | Joan Carr-Wiggin | 2 |
7 | 56 | Vicky Jewson | 2 |
7 | 56 | Madonna | 2 |
7 | 56 | Deepa Mehta | 2 |
7 | 56 | Inés París | 2 |
7 | 56 | Isabel Coixet | 2 |
Producers
Women in the British film industry are far better represented in producing than in writing and directing. 25 of the top 104 UK producers are women (i.e. those who have produced at least 11 UK feature films 2003-13).
# female producers | # all producers | Name | Credits |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | Tessa Ross | 39 |
2 | 11 | Liza Chasin | 24 |
3 | 13 | Christine Langan | 23 |
3 | 13 | Carola Ash | 23 |
5 | 25 | Charlotte Walls | 19 |
6 | 32 | Debra Hayward | 18 |
6 | 32 | Julia Blackman | 18 |
6 | 32 | Sam Taylor | 18 |
6 | 32 | Gillian Berrie | 18 |
10 | 43 | Linda James | 16 |
11 | 45 | Zorana Piggott | 15 |
11 | 45 | Rosa Romero | 15 |
13 | 60 | Lizzie Francke | 13 |
13 | 60 | Liza Marshall | 13 |
13 | 60 | Gail Egan | 13 |
13 | 60 | Katherine Butler | 13 |
Screenwriters
Novelist J.K. Rowling is the woman with the most number of writing credits in UK film 2003-13. I’ve included all writing credits, hence the appearance of J.K. Rowling and Jane Austin. However, if we look strictly at screenplay credits, as opposed to source material, then Jane Goldman (‘Kick-ass’ and ‘X-men’) and Abi Morgan (‘The Iron Lady’ and ‘Brick Lane’) share the top spot.
# female writers | # all writers | Name | Credits |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 5 | J.K. Rowling | 6 |
2 | 12 | Jane Goldman | 5 |
2 | 12 | Abi Morgan | 5 |
4 | 27 | Mary McGuckian | 4 |
4 | 27 | Gurinder Chadha | 4 |
6 | 52 | Debbie Isitt | 3 |
6 | 52 | Sally Potter | 3 |
6 | 52 | Andrea Arnold | 3 |
6 | 52 | Penny Woolcock | 3 |
6 | 52 | Joan Carr-Wiggin | 3 |
6 | 52 | Mairi Fraser Sutherland | 3 |
6 | 52 | Jane Austen | 3 |
6 | 52 | Mark O'Rowe | 3 |
6 | 52 | Emma Thompson | 3 |
6 | 52 | Moira Buffini | 3 |
6 | 52 | Bridget O'Connor | 3 |
Epilogue – Most employed women in the British film industry
I used the BFI’s tracking data for films made between 2003 and 2013 to define what was and wasn’t a UK film. I have no doubt that some of these classifications will be disputed as (a) the BFI are not perfect and (b) film can be a subjective field. If any of the people listed above feel aggrieved that their number of credits is incorrect then please do drop me a line. This research looks at number of credits, not number of days worked. Consequently, someone who worked one day apiece on ten films will get ten credits whereas someone else who performed ten days work on a single film will be listed as having one credit. There is little I can do to account for this possible unfairness.
Comments
Thanks Stephen – very interesting and timely
A very interesting idea but I think you’d have to tweak your criteria somewhat to make your list meaningful. Almost all your producers are in fact execs handing out subsidised funds eg Tessa Ross at Film Four and Christine Langan at BBC Films. They do (or did) a great job but they are not producers in a practical sense. If you looked at actual producers rather than execs or line producers the picture would look much less rosy, though still probably better than directors or writers.
And having JK Rowling on your writer list I would also question – as you have implicitly done in your comment.
Out of interest, I wonder if a list of male writers would be as dominated by directors?
Hi Olivia,
You’re absolutely right – any set of lists like this will be somewhat arbitrary. The choice of films (dates and budget ranges) will influence the results hugely, as will defining what types of writers, producers and directors we are to count. In situations such as this I tend to go for the option which requires the fewest ‘choices’ on my part. Not through laziness, but in the pursuit of minimising bias or political judgments.
Defining a producer is tricky, partly because there are so many types but also because different organisations classify producers differently. An ‘associate producer’ in one system could be an ‘executive producer’ or ‘assistant producer’ in other systems. You can see more about this here stephenfollows.com/how-many-producers-does-it-take-to-make-a-film. It’s a bit clearer with writers but there is still some grey areas.
For today’s research I decided to group all producers (as shown on IMDb) and use the WGA rules for who should be credited. Hopefully the transparent nature of my research should allow anyone who doesn’t agree with these classifications to see what’s been done and take the outcomes with how ever much salt is needed!
Stephen
Hi Stephen, interesting but do you have any comments on DPs. There are some fantastic female cinematographers coming up, but they hardly get any exposure.
No pun intended? 😉
I don’t have these kinds of league tables for DoPs, mostly because of the time it takes to research and create them. That said, I have previously looked at the percentage of UK cinematographers who are women. It was 7.8% across all UK films made between 2009 and 2013. stephenfollows.com/what-percentage-of-a-british-film-crew-is-female.
I do want to look at the topic so maybe it’s something for a future research project.
Who are these fantastic female cinematographers?
11% isn’t great. I do hope that this highlights the greater efforts the BFI and other public financiers need to make to discriminate positively for more Female driven films to get made across the UK.