Women directed just 24.2% of French films in 2024, down from 25% in 2023, according to the CNC’s Gender Equality report published this month.
The report comes after no women were nominated in the best film or best director categories at this year’s Cesar awards. Louise Courvoisier did take home the best debut feature prize for Holy Cow, in a category where Agathe Riedinger was also nominated for Wild Diamond.
According to the CNC report, women directors made films with budgets 39% lower than those of their male counterparts in 2024, compared to 25% the year before. The budget for films strictly directed by women fell from €3.9m in 2023 to €3.5m.
French female filmmakers directed or co-directed 25.6% of fiction films, a total of 46 films, 35.7% of documentaries (15 films). Of the nine animated films approved by the CNC in 2024, only one was directed by a woman. 31.4% of debut features were directed or co-directed by women in 2024, down from 34% in 2023.
On a more positive upward swing, the proportion of films directed by women released in local cinemas (87 films) rose to 29.6% compared to 29% in 2023. The proportion of films co-directed by women also rose slightly from 2% to 2.6%.
The study also looked at the percentage of women across multiple production jobs in 2023. While women continue to dominate the fields of make-up, costumes and hair (88.7%, 87.1% and 69.3% respectively), they remain few and far between in more technical positions like set construction (19.4%), sound mixing (9.3%) and among camera operators (9.2%). The CNC also compared salaries in such professions in 2023, with women consistently making less money than men in nearly every job in the industry, other than stuntwomen whose salaries were 10% higher than men.
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