Female filmmakers on the decline: Could male-dominated blockbusters be to blame?

Try to name the last major Hollywood movie you saw that was directed by a woman. Go ahead, we’ll wait.

If you could even think of one (don’t worry, it’s hard), the chances are pretty high that you named either Disney’s “Frozen” (co-directed by Jennifer Lee), the horror remake “Carrie” (directed by Kimberly Peirce), or the family comedy “Peeples” (directed by Tina Gordon Chism). Those were the only women who directed major studio feature films released in 2013.

You might have also named director Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker” or “Zero Dark Thirty.” The two acclaimed films are among the highest profile examples of recent Hollywood films that were directed by women, with the former earning Bigelow the coveted Best Director and Best Picture Oscars.

Despite those accolades though, Bigelow appears to be an exception to the rule. According to the annual Celluloid Ceiling report issued by the Centre for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, there are now fewer women employed in film production than there was in 1998 (the year when the study was first published). The survey found that only 16 per cent of behind-the-scenes professionals working in the film industry are women. The study included directors, screenwriters, producers, executive producers, editors, cinematographers, production designers and visual/special effects supervisors. Depressing.

The U.S. film industry, like pretty much every big industry, is one dominated by men. It’s a state of affairs that’s not likely to change soon, but you’d think by the year 2014 there would have at least been some progress in this area. The fact that the presence of women in the Hollywood is actually now declining - just a few years after Bigelow’s big wins - is shameful.

There has been progress in front of camera with heroines like Katniss Everdeen from "The Hunger Games" or “Frozen”’s Anna providing positive female movie role models for young moviegoers, but those examples are still few and far between. And what about behind the camera? What does a young woman who wants to make movies see when they look at the Hollywood film industry? They see an industry that doesn’t welcome women - and one that is more dominated my men than in any time in recent memory. Plain and simple.

Let’s get one thing clear though: There were plenty of women filmmakers making great movies in 2013 - films like Sarah Polley's "Stories We Tell," Sofia Coppola's “The Bling Ring,” Maggie Carey's “The To Do List,” Lake Bell’s “In a World…” and Sally Potter's “Ginger & Rosa” - but very few of those movies were widely released or backed by major studios. Hollywood should be embracing these films and filmmakers, but instead they're producing sequel after male-directed, male-oriented sequel. Who wants to see another movie about a white male who gets superpowers? The next generation of women filmmakers certainly won't be looking toward Hollywood as an example of what's possible.