Martha Lauzen: Last News

It’s about time.

Brent Lang Executive Editor From thrillers like “Babygirl” and “Love Lies Bleeding” to genre-bending horror flicks like “The Substance” to inspirational sports dramas like “The Fire Inside,” women directed some of last year’s most audacious and acclaimed films. However, those female filmmakers remained the exception, not the rule.

Angelique Jackson A new study indicates that the tenets that contributed to “Barbie’s” $1.4 billion box office success and pop culture dominance — namely featuring a female-led ensemble — was the exception rather than the rule in Hollywood this year. Outside of Barbieland and a handful of other movies that were fronted by female characters, there was decreasing opportunity for women in film in 2023.

One step forward, more steps back for women on the small screen: the latest Boxed In report from San Diego State University’s Dr. Martha Lauzen says that more females showed up as contestants on reality programs and game shows than on series during the 2022-23 season.

The percentage of female characters portrayed in the 100 top domestic grossing films increased only “slightly” last year compared to 2021, according to the latest report from San Diego State. Last year, they accounted for 33% of the protagonists – up from 31% in 2021, but well below the 40% high-water mark achieved in 2019.

A new report from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University has found that women made up 50% of major characters on streaming programs and 48% on broadcast TV during 2021-2022, the fourth year in a row that streaming companies have outpaced their broadcast network counterparts in that metric.

Selome Hailu During the 2020-21 TV season, a study found that streaming companies put more women in positions of creative power than broadcast networks did, though broadcasters featured slightly more women as major characters in their shows. But a year later, that same study has found that streamers now beat out networks on both fronts by slight margins. The study, titled “Boxed In,” has been run by Dr. Martha Lauzen, executive director of San Diego State University’s Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, for 25 years now. Lauzen also conducts the yearly studies “Celluloid Ceiling” and “Thumbs Down: Gender and Film Critics, and Why It Matters.” Boxed In” considers one randomly selected episode of different series appearing on the broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CW) during primetime and streaming services (Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Paramount+, Peacock). In 2021-22, the study tracked over 3,000 characters and more than 3,800 production credits, adding to a total of over 53,000 characters and 66,000 credits since the study began during the 1997-98 TV season.

Documentaries entered into high-profile U.S. film festivals in 2021-22 employed a much higher percentage of women in key behind-the-scenes jobs than did feature films, according to the latest “Indie Women” report from Dr. Martha Lauzen, executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterThe number of women who review feature films has decreased in recent years as movie criticism remains a man’s game, according to a new study.The report, titled “Thumbs Down: Film Critics and Gender, and Why It Matters,” shows that in early 2022, males continue to outnumber their female counterparts by more than 2 to 1 in the U.S. Across print, radio, television and online outlets, men account for 69% of critics, women account for 31% and nonbinary individuals account for 0.3%.

Representation of female protagonists and BIPOC women in 2021’s top-grossing films have ticked up slightly, the latest study from San Diego State University’s Dr. Martha Lauzen finds.

Pat Saperstein Deputy EditorMale characters in films continued to heavily outnumber female characters in 2021, according to the latest It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World study from Dr. Martha Lauzen, executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.A hefty 85% of films featured more male than female characters, the study found.

The number of female directors on top-grossing films in 2021 has decreased, according to the latest Celluloid Ceiling study from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.

The percentage of top-grossing films that featured female protagonists “dropped dramatically” last year, down from 40% in 2019 to just 29% in 2020 – a decline of more than 27%, according to the latest study from Dr. Martha Lauzen, executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University. The report found that after two years of gains, last year’s percentage of female protagonists was the same as in 2016 – the year before the start of the #MeToo movement.