Professor Stacy Smith and researcher Marc Choueiti

 

By Krista Daly Student Writer Major national media covered USC Annenberg professor Stacy Smith’s research extensively this week. More than 300 news outlets picked up the story from an Associated Press report. Also, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, KPCC, and Reuters produced their own stories. Smith's study, released Jan. 21, is important because it is the first to examine gender disparity in American independent film. The overall results showed that more women are working in independent films than in Hollywood. “If you look at the data, they reveal an environment in which women are creating and exhibiting films in strong numbers, especially in documentaries," Smith said. "Why is this? First, Sundance Institute positions women to succeed. Second, female filmmakers support each other." Smith will present the findings publicly at a panel she is co-hosting with Academy Award-winning producer Cathy Schulman on Jan. 25 at the Sundance Film Festival. Some highlights of the study include: • Of U.S. films selected for the Sundance Film Festival from 2002 to 2012, 29.8 percent of filmmakers (directors, writers, producers, cinematographers and editors) were women. • Women were half as likely to be directors of narrative films than documentaries (16.9 percent vs. 34.5 percent). • Female directors of Sundance Film Festival movies exceeded those of the top 100 box office films: 23.9 percent of directors at the Sundance Film Festival from 2002 to 2012 were women, compared to 4.4 percent of directors across the top 100 box office films each year from 2002 to 2012 who were women. • Across 1,100 top-grossing movies of the past 10 years, 41.5 percent of female directors had been supported by the Sundance Institute. • When compared to films directed by men, those directed by women feature more female filmmakers behind the camera (writers, producers, cinematographers and editors). This is true in both narratives (21-percent increase) and documentaries (24-percent increase). Stacy Smith