The BFI’s Statistical Yearbook, published by the BFI Research and Statistics Unit, is a comprehensive resource for statistics regarding the UK Film Industry. Contents of the yearbook include figures and tables regarding revenue, audiences, the highest grossing movies produced in the United Kingdom, and more.
Released in 2019, the most recent yearbook’s statistics indicate the absence of women in the highest earners of the film industry, even though women were roughly half of the audience for both UK and global film industries in 2018.
In recent years, there has been a rise in the number of female writers and directors, however figures from 2009 up to 2018 indicate that the amount of women present in these roles is still a small fraction of the number of men. The UK Film industry had its highest number of female writers in 2018, with 60 women, compared to only 23 in 2009.
However, over 75% of writers were male in 2018, suggesting that perhaps the film industry is not as welcoming of women as it should be. Is the creative ability of women in the film industry not appreciated enough, or are women less likely to get hired for important roles? Analysis of audience profiles for UK films has shown that 49.4% of audiences in 2018 were women, but the percentage of women making the films we watch is significantly lower.
Rather than reflecting audiences, the gender of directors in the industry mirrors that of the writers, as the number of female directors is also substantially lower than the number of male directors. In 2009, there were only 21 female directors and over 100 male directors. There was almost no change in the proportion of women directing films in 2018; there were only 26 female directors, and 178 male directors.
Another trend in the list of directors for the highest grossing UK films is their age, and race. Older white men make up most of this list, whereas the demographics of audiences indicates that older white men aren’t the majority of viewers. This chart shows the percentage of different age groups which make up the audiences for films in the UK.
Experience is a crucial aspect of making successful films, which could explain the lack of younger directors, but there is a clear difference between the race of the top directors and the people watching their films.
A survey from the Statistical Yearbook contains information on the audiences for film in the UK and how they watch movies, broken down by demographics such as age and background. The survey provides valuable insight to the ages of viewers on different platforms, as well as their sexuality. Different ethnic backgrounds were categorized as BAME (Black, Asian, & Minority Ethnic), providing little insight into the various ethnic backgrounds which watch and enjoy films in the UK. The yearbook fails to represent the multitude of ethnicities in the UK, as does the list of top directors. Women from minority backgrounds are not represented at all in the list of top directors.
Overall, women’s pay in the film industry has not smashed any glass ceilings, with figures showing that the pay gap still exists in the companies distributing content produced in the UK. Despite high earnings through the distribution of content on various platforms, women are still earning much less in comparison to older white men in the United Kingdom’s film industry. Growing revenue within the film industry has had limited impact on shrinking the gender pay gap.