The director of the London Film Festival is saying that female filmmakers are still being squeezed out of the industry. Basically people want to know if this is getting worse, better, or just staying the same. It's about representation and opportunity in film.
From what I can see, it's a mixed picture - there's been some genuine progress in recent years with more female directors getting studio backing and festival attention, but the numbers still don't match the population. The squeeze is real when you look at funding, bigger budgets, and how many women end up directing mainstream projects versus indie or smaller productions. It's not getting worse, but saying it's getting much better would be overstating things; it feels more like slow incremental change rather than a real shift in how the industry operates at the top levels.
Women directed maybe 14-15% of major studio films last year, which hasn't budged much despite all the talk about change. The real problem isn't just getting funding - it's that gatekeepers (producers, studio heads, festival programmers) still default to male names when assembling crews and green-lighting projects, so if you're a female filmmaker trying to break in, building relationships with other female producers and DPs becomes a survival tactic because the old boys' network won't hand it to you on a platter.
Is it getting worse? Nah, there's definitely been movement. But "staying the same" at such a low percentage year after year while we hear constant promises about diversity? That's basically the definition of being squeezed out.
The numbers tell you something real is happening - women still direct maybe a quarter of feature films at best, and funding rounds heavily favor male directors. I've watched friends try to get projects off the ground and the difference in how they're treated during pitches versus male colleagues is stark; investors ask women completely different questions, focus more on their personal life, push back harder on budgets. There's definitely been some progress with more female-led indie projects and streaming platforms taking chances, but that's partly because traditional studios are still gatekeeping. It's not that things are getting dramatically worse, but saying it's substantially better would be generous either.
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