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EWA and the new Media Programme

EWA Network calls for Gender Equality mesures in the new Media Programme

Responding to the open public consultation on the Creative Europe Programme, EWA Network has released a statement to call on the European Commission for an integration of gender equality among the priorities of the next Media Sub-Programme.

As the 2016 EWA Report "Where are the Women Directors in European Films?" conducted in seven different European countries has shown, there is a significant under-representation of female directors in all levels of the industry (24%), despite there being an almost equal share of women graduating from film schools and thereby entering the industry (44%). Moreover, the EWA study goes to show that a total of 84% of public funding resources go into films that are NOT directed by women. The talents exist, unfortunately though, they aren’t fully exploited.

According to the EWA study, the reasons for this critical gender unbalance in the industry include competitive habits of the marketplace, the contemporary industry structures, the impact of new technologies and the false assumptions about women’s abilities and business risk.

To counter this inequality, EWA Network asks for an explicit integration of gender equality among the General Objectives of the next Creative Europe Programme, as well as among the priorities of the MEDIA Sub-Programme. The Network also recommends the retrospective collection of gender related data for each project currently funded by the programme, including the composition of the pools of experts evaluating and selecting the projects to be funded.

EWA Network Director Alessia Sonaglioni states that "the imbalanced presence of women in the European audiovisual sector should be urgently addressed at the European Union level through concrete action by the European Commission. The incorporation of gender equality among the objectives of the next Media Sub-Programme and the adoption of affirmative measures in favour of women within the specific projects that will be included in the new Programme would be the best way to make a significant progress".

Here you can download EWA’s contribution to the consultation