Women represent less than one film director out of four in Europe

The European Audiovisual Observatory publishes new report on the gender of directors and screenwriters in European film and audiovisual fiction.

This report provides an assessment of the gender imbalance among directors and screenwriters in Europe, looking at both feature films and audiovisual fiction series.

This analysis provides an overview of the gender of directors and screenwriters of European film and audiovisual fiction episodes, including information on film genres and content type. In addition, it explores the gender composition of direction and screenwriting teams and identifies the share of films by female-majority teams.

Download Female directors and screenwriters here

Key insights

1. Between 2015 and 2018, only 22% of directors of European feature films were women. The share of female professionals directing audiovisual fiction episodes is even lower: 19%
2. The gender gap is less pronounced among screenwriters: women represent 25% of screenwriters in film and 34% in audiovisual fiction series.
3. Female professionals were less likely to be the sole director or screenwriter: out of all films written by at least one female screenwriter, 67% were written in teams with other colleagues.
4. Between 2015 and 2019 only 18% of European films had a majority of female directors, with no significant evolution over the years. This figure is only 14% for audiovisual fiction episodes.
5. The share of films made by female-majority teams is higher for documentary films than for other film genres, taking into account films made by female directors (25%) and female screenwriters (25%).