Women Make Movies was founded more than 30 years ago to address the under-representation and misrepresentation of women in media. According to the latest industry statistics, the fight goes on! Below are a few startling facts about the status of women in the industry, some heartening information from Women Make Movies, plus links other great resources for the latest statistics, articles and opinions about women in the industry.

Film & Entertainment Industry Facts
Facts About Women Make Movies
Other Online Resources and Links

Film & Entertainment Industry Facts

• There are 38 film festivals solely dedicated to showing the work of women directors throughout the world. -Women in the Director's Chair
   
• Nineteen percent (19%) of films released in 2005 employed no women directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers or editors.
  - Celluloid Ceiling 2006 Report
   
• Women accounted for only 7% of directors in 2005, representing a decline of 4 percentage points as compared with 11% in 2000.
  - Celluloid Ceiling 2006 Report
   
• A comparison of women's employment on the top 250 films in 2005 and 1998 shows that the percentages of women directors, writers, executive producers, and cinematographers have declined, while the percentage of women producers has increased.
  - Celluloid Ceiling 2006 Report
   
• Women working behind the scenes influenced the number of on-screen women. When a program had no female creators, females accounted for 40% of all characters. However, when a program employed at least one woman creator, females comprised 45% of all characters.
  - Boxed In: Women On Screen and Behind the Scenes in the 2003-04 Prime-time Season, by Martha Lauzen
   
• In Academy Award history, only three female filmmakers have been nominated for best director award (Lina Wertmuller in 1977, Jane Campion in 1994, and Sofia Coppola in 2004), but none have won.
  - Women's E-News

Facts About Women Make Movies

• WMM has more than 500 films in its collection, representing more than 400 filmmakers from nearly 30 countries around the globe.
   
• In the last decade, WMM has worked with dozens of local women’s organizations in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East to support new International Women’s Film Festivals.
   
• Projects that WMM has supported and distributed have been nominated for and won all of the most prestigious media awards, including the Academy Award, Emmy Award, Peabody Award, and the duPont-Columbia University Broadcast Award, among others.
   
• WMM now sponsors more than 200 projects in its renowned Production Assistance Program, and has helped filmmakers raise close to $4 million in funding over the last 5 years.
   
• WMM has returned more than $1.5 million in royalties to women filmmakers over the last three years.
   
• WMM serves as an advisor to pioneering projects around the world including: the Gender Montage Project which trains filmmakers in the former Soviet Republics; and a groundbreaking program developed to promote filmmaking in Iraq.
   
• WMM films have been aired by major broadcasters around the world, including HBO/Cinemax, PBS, Sundance Channel, IFC and international broadcasters such as ZDF, Arte, KBS Korea and TV Globo Brazil.

Other Online Resources and Links

New York Women in Film and Television’s Resource List
www.nywift.org/article.aspx?id=60
NYWIFT’s list of resources that document the status of women in the industry. Contains articles, statistics and links to important reports on the subject.

Professional Organization of Women in Entertainment Reaching UP!
http://www.power-up.net/
POWER UP works to promote the visibility and integration of gay women in the arts and all forms of media. POWER UP runs a workshop series as well as providing grants to filmmakers.

Women’s Study Section
www.bama.ua.edu/~mbarrett/filmwsslinks.html
A compilation of research from the Association of College and Research Libraries provides links to information concerning women in film. There are general sites, directories, criticisms, reviews, and organizations which give links to substantive information regarding women in film.

The Guerilla Girls
www.guerillagirls.com
The Guerrilla Girls are a group of women artists, writers, performers, film makers and arts professionals who fight discrimination. They produce art posters, printed projects, and actions that expose sexism and racism in the art world and culture at large.

“The Woman Behind the Camera” Ann Lewinson http://www.independent.jknet.hk/AnnLewinson.htm
This article talks about the biases society imposes on women thus limiting their career in the film industry. Early NYU film students were told that women could not make feature films. These confessions along with chilling statistics from the Celluloid Ceiling tell the current status of women behind the camera.

The World’s Women On-Line!
http://wwol.is.asu.edu
The World's Women On-Line! is an electronic art networking project originally established to be presented at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China in 1995. Utilizing the Internet as a global exhibition format, this site focuses attention on the challenge of bringing the vast resource of women's experience and culture into the rapidly developing field of information technology. The World's Women On-Line! demonstrates the professionalism and achievement of women artists internationally; bridges language barriers through art imagery; and promotes the interdisciplinary collaboration between technologists and artists.

 “Status of Contemporary Women Filmmakers” Dr. Katrien Jacobs http://pages.emerson.edu/faculty/Katrien_Jacobs/articles/womenfilm/womenfilm.html
This article gives an in-depth analysis of international filmmaking and the ideologies that restrict women filmmakers. The effects of globalization and American corporations have made the emergence of women into the industry more difficult. Yet, there are still companies that are prevailing including WMM. There are some great quotes and analysis of current trends and how they will affect the woman filmmaker.

“Two Women Filmmakers Win Oscars” Cynthia L. Cooper www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=490
Woman filmmakers are making their mark in the 2001 Oscars, despite the fact that a female director has never won the director of the year award. This article praises the feminine use of documentary. Cooper writes, “The golden statue is just a distant glimmer for most in the expanding opus of women's work.” There are also links to other film and media sources that focus on women.

University of Berkeley
www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/womenbib.html#industry
University of Berkeley’s bibliography of books and articles concerning women in the industry.

Women In the Director’s Chair http://www.widc.org/links.html
This site has a plethora of information that can be used by a filmmaker and/or academic looking for resources for women.

Fade In
Galloway_article.pdf
Reprinted from www.FadeinOnline.com
An article by Stephen Galloway entitled “Women On The Verge: In Today’s Hollywood, Even If Women ‘Pass the Test,’ Can They Get Past The Testosterone?” talks about the issues affecting women filmmakers after graduating from film school. The article dishearteningly mentions information concerning the existent “boy’s club” in a supposed liberal Hollywood. “Male Dominance in the Hollywood Workplace, and What is Means for Women Making—and Seeing—Movies”

Tamara L. Sobel, The Girls, Women and Media Project http://www.mergemag.org/1999/novdec99/lauzen1999.html
Sobel sketches the grim portrait of women’s participation in Hollywood. Though a bit dated, this article from 1999 acknowledges the lack of creative influence and opportunity in Hollywood.

“Interviewer Interviewed: A Discussion with Trihn Minh-ha” http://pages.emerson.edu/organizations/fas/latent_image/issues/1993-12/trihn.htm
Acclaimed filmmaker and professor Trihn Minh-ha reflects on the independent filmmaking process, compares and contrasts filmmaking and writing, and discusses feminism, the art of balancing scholarship with creativity, and how she defines the ‘political’ in an interview with Tina Spangler from Emerson College.

“Listen to You Own Voice! An interview with Native American independent filmmaker, Sandra Osawa
http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/osawa.html
Victor Payan chats with documentary filmmaker Sandra Osawa about her influences, film school, the documentary process, opportunities for Native American filmmakers, and how she navigated through a male dominated industry.

“Strong Women’s Roles at Toronto Festival”
http://www.thebigscreen.com/flix/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=32
In this article David Germain examines upcoming women’s roles in films at the Toronto International Film Festival. Using quotes from actresses and other women in the industry, Germain argues that while independent films have traditionally offered actresses roles of substance, films such as The Hours may have set a new standard in Hollywood filmmaking in terms of depth in women’s roles.

International Gender Watchdog Network
www.mediawatchdogs.org
The International Gender Watchdog Network is a directory that provides information on all groups that undertake gender watchdog activities. These activities include media monitoring, activism, education, information, etc. The website brings up-to-date information on gender-based media watchdogs and monitoring groups from all over the world. This site is designed as a resource for activists and as an aid in promoting fair portrayals of both men and women in the media via international collaboration.

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