Indie Women: Behind-the-Scenes Employment of Women in U.S. Independent Film, 2024-25
EXCERPT
This year’s Indie Women report tracked the employment of behind-the-scenes women working on independently and domestically produced feature-length documentaries and narrative features screening and/or streaming at 20 high-profile film festivals in the U.S. Overall, gender inequality widened in 2024-25 with the fests screening/streaming almost twice as many narrative features directed by men as by women over the last year. The fests considered featured an average of 13 films directed by men and 7 by women. In 2023-24, the ratio was 11 to 7. In addition, after two consecutive years in which the fests streamed/screened equal or slightly higher numbers of documentary features directed by women, that trend reversed in 2024-25 with docs directed by men outnumbering those by women, 12 to 10. Women were more likely to direct, write, produce, edit, and shoot documentaries than narrative features. Women comprised 45% of individuals working in these roles on documentaries but 33% on narrative features. This difference is especially evident for women working as directors (41% documentaries, 32% narrative features), editors (38% documentaries, 27% narrative features), and cinematographers (22% documentaries, 13% narrative features). The study also reports the percentages of women working as composers. Women comprised 15% and men 85% of composers on independent features (narrative and documentary films) in 2024-25, down from 18% in 2023-24. Composers, who happen to be women, fared slightly better on documentaries (16%) than on narrative features (14%).