Here at Funny Women, we're not just invested in getting more women into stand up comedy. We want to see women excelling in all industries , which is why we're taking part in the London Comedy Film Festival and Underwire Festival Working Women day tomorrow, Saturday 26th January.
The question we get a lot is 'Are women funny?' but in TV and film, the question is often 'Where are the women?' Recently, the Centre for the Study of Women in Television & Film released their yearly report on the status of women in the industry and found that of ALL directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers and editors working on the top 250 grossing (USA) films of 2012, only 18% were women. This percentage hasn't changed since 2011, and has only risen one measly percentage since 1998. Nineteen ninety-eight. That's fifteen years ago. In fifteen years, the amount of women working in the top-grossing Hollywood-style films has only risen 1%. In the eighty-five years of the Academy Awards, Kathyrn Bigelow is the only woman to ever win Best Director, and that was back in 2009. This year, absolutely no female directors have been nominated in the category. (But Zero Dark Thirty is up for Best Picture.)
So, where are the women?
According to a recent study into the gender disparity of film making, they're hanging out at the independent film lots. At the Sundance Film Festival, female directors comprised 22.2% of the narrative Competition categories, and 14.5% of the Non-Competition categories. In comparison, only 4.4% of directors were female across the top 100 box office films each year from 2002 to 2012.
So the question becomes, why are women drawn towards independent film making over the Hollywood blockbusters? Kathryn Bigelow has directed and produced some incredibly blockbuster-y type films, The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty and Point Break, but she is among very few other women.
The answer to this might lie in who holds the pursestrings. People want to invest in films which they believe are bankable, and by extrapolating from past data – that films with men at the helm are more profitable than those with women – they will continue to invest in male directors, even though this statistics are undeniably skewed.
How can women who are passionate and dedicated to film making push past this prejudice on the part of investors and studios? Primarily, by not waiting to be picked up by these very people. Going into independent media is easier than ever now, with video cameras becoming cheaper by the day, and webseries being the new medium for piloting programme ideas.
Of course, we can't do this sort of thing alone, and that's why the work that LOCO Film Festival and the Underwire Festival both do, are so important. They create a space for women to talk about the opportunities which are available – and denied – to them, while also providing a springboard for both men and women to kick-start their comedy careers in film. The opportunity to group together, skill share, and start creating our own media is exactly the aim of day’s such as Saturday’s Working Women Day.
Come along tomorrow to hear fantastic, successful, and hard-working women from film and TV speak about their experiences, and also for the free drinks reception in the evening, which we are hosting along with Blue Nun! There'll be performances from Funny Women Awards 2012 Winner Gabby Best, and Funny Women Variety Awards Winner 2012 Sooz Kempner, and the opportunity to chat with comedy producers and stand-up stars about how women can make it in the comedy industry, both film and TV.
You can get tickets for the Working Women day, and free drinks reception, HERE.
Pictured: Jane Campion; the only female director to win the Palme D'or, Kathryn Bigelow, the only women to win Best Director at the Academy Awards
