ReFrame and IMDbPro 2024 ReFrame Report on Gender and Hiring in Film shows that 30 out of the 100 most popular films of 2024 received the ReFrame “stamp” for gender-balanced productions.
Among those films are “Wicked,” “The Substance” and “Emilia Perez.”
The 2024 ReFrame Report on Gender and Hiring in Film suggests that despite little improvement in gender-balanced hiring over the last five years and lower budgets being allocated to these projects, Stamped films deliver at the box office.
Findings also show that significant progress towards parity was made on camera, with little change made behind the camera in both above- and below-the-line roles.
Since the brief climb captured in the first few years of the report between 2017 and 2019, progress for parity in feature films has stalled, with 30% or fewer projects receiving the ReFrame Stamp for the past five years.
Key findings from the report show that the number of women directors represented in the Top 100 films of 2024 fell from 2023 (20 to 14), and there were zero transgender or nonbinary directors and only five women of color (down from nine in 2023).
Elsewhere, lead acting roles reached parity, with 51 films starring women, including one transgender woman. Of those 51 women, 17 were women of color.
48 films had at least one woman producer, and included nine who were women of color. There were no
transgender or nonbinary people producing top films in any year analyzed.
Women screenwriters also fell 23.3% from 30 in 2023 to 23 in 2024, with steeper declines for women of color (eight last year and three this year).
Artisans, including directors of photography, composers and visual effects supervisors, remain three of the positions most lacking in representation, with women holding fewer than 10% of each role. In 2024, women accounted for three directors of photography, six visual effects supervisors and eight composers within the Top 100 films.
Additionally, co-leads (the four largest supporting roles) frequently include women, with 97/100 films including a qualifying candidate. This year, four of 100 films include a nonbinary or transgender performer in a supporting role. Ethnic diversity for co-lead performers dropped nearly a quarter
(24.1%) from last year’s 58 to 44.
Streamers Netflix and Amazon earned the ReFrame Stamp for more than 50% of their releases, while Apple, Lionsgate and Paramount did not release any of the Stamped films in the Top 100.
Per the official report, the Stamp is awarded to features that hire “qualifying candidates,” or women or individuals of other underrepresented gender identities/expressions (including those who are transgender, nonbinary, or gender nonconforming) in at least 50% of key roles roles, including writer, director, producer, lead, co-leads, cinematographer, production designer, costume designer, editor, composer, music supervisor, VFX supervisor, line producer, unit production manager, 1st assistant director, stunt coordinator and intimacy coordinator.
Read the full report on ReFrame and IMDb.
