Watch the full video of the online event organised to keep track of the latest developments related to the presence of women in European cinema

The “Women in European Cinema: Are We Making Progress?” online panel was held on 7 December. It was organised by the European Women’s Audiovisual Network (EWA Network), UNI Europa - Media, Entertainment & Arts (EUROMEI), and the European Film Agency Directors Association (EFAD) in partnership with the International Federation of Actors (FIA), the Federation of European Screen Directors (FERA), the Lab Femmes de Cinema, the European Audiovisual Observatory and Cineuropa.

For the third consecutive year (see 2021 and 2020 events here and here), a group of organisations and research bodies in the European audiovisual sector organised the online event to keep track of the latest developments related to the presence of women in European cinema. The main objective, five years after the emergence of #MeToo, and two years on from the "50/50 by 2020" target, remains to keep the topic on the agenda, to monitor progress and to identify priority actions for the future.

The meeting started with a presentation of the most recent gender-equality statistics from the European Audiovisual Observatory, by Patrizia Simone. According to data from the years 2017-2021 (both inclusive), women represented only 25% of all European feature directors, compared to 75% for men; for screenwriters, women account for 28%, 34% for producers, 39% for lead roles, 10% for composers and 10% for cinematographers. Although the percentage of women in the ranks of active professionals is growing, progress is slow, and women are still underrepresented. She also pointed out that women worked on a smaller number of films than men and that there is a disparity when it comes to the productions’ budgets. You can read the report in full by clicking here.

During the second panel, after presenting the objectives of their study – to compile a catalogue of good practices on a European level and remind people that it’s necessary to be politically active in such matters – Fabienne Silvestre, co-founder of the Lab Femmes de Cinéma, and overall coordinator Lise Perottet stated that the subjects of gender equality and diversity are increasingly being broached from a political point of view.

The meeting wrapped, albeit with diverging opinions, with all of the attendees stressing the importance of the work that is being done and agreeing that, although we are making slow progress and there is still much work to be done and many measures to be taken before we achieve equality both in front of and behind the camera, we are nevertheless heading in the right direction.

Watch the full video of the online event below:

(Translated from Spanish)