For Female Filmmakers, Indies Provide More Work Than Studios, Study Finds

In case there was any doubt, women fare better when they go independent. That is the latest finding from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, which reported that the percentage of women occupying crucial filmmaking roles is greater in independent films compared with top-grossing movies.

Women accounted for 26 percent of such roles, which include directing, writing and producing, in feature-length American independent films that screened at festivals in the last year. That percentage remained even with a previous study in 2011-12. By contrast, women comprised just 16 percent of the important behind-the-scenes roles in 2013’s top-grossing domestic films. Breaking the numbers down further, the study found that women made up 28 percent of documentary directors and 18 percent of directors working on independent narrative features. Meanwhile, women directed a mere 6 percent of last year’s top-grossing films.