Shocker: Women in the Film Industry Are Good for the Film Industry

This should come as a shock to no one, but here it is: A new study out of the UK finds that films with female directors and writers do well at the box office.

The piece at The Hollywood Reporter begins, “Employing more women in writing and directing roles makes sound business sense for the film industry, according to new research from the British Film Institute.” There are a bunch of statistics at the link, showing that a high percentage of indie films in the UK had a female writer and/or director. Awesome, right? Wait:

But women remain underrepresented in writing and directing roles. For all U.K. independent films released during the period analyzed, just 11.4 percent of the directors and 16.1 percent of the writers were female.

AHHH. It’s just crazy: Women go to movies. Women want to make movies. The movie industry needs more women, would be successful with more women, and yet… there are not enough women.

Still, Maria Miller, the U.K. culture minister and minister for women and equalities (that’s a crowded business card) seems optimistic, telling THR: “There is still a long way to go to address under-representation across the sector in general, but with the number of women being employed within the creative industries growing year by year, I know we can look forward to a future for film where the talent of women can shine.”