Calling the Shots: Women and contemporary film culture in the UK, 2000-2015

Lead Research Organisation: University of Southampton
Department Name: Sch of Humanities

Abstract

'Calling the shots: Women and contemporary film culture in the UK, 2000-2015' investigates women as creative practitioners in contemporary UK cinema.

The media regularly report that women make up less than 10% of all directors and less than 15% of all screenwriters in the film industry. Statistics cited invariably originate from research done by the Centre for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, California. Focusing on the top 250 grossing films of each year in the U.S.A., this research shows that the numbers of women in six key roles (director, writer, editor, cinematographer, produce and executive-producer) have not changed from 1998 to 2012 (17-19%). Despite the British Film Institute's statistics on directors and screenwriters, most media reports on women filmmakers in the UK also use the American research, assuming a straight equivalence with the UK situation. In fact no research has studied comprehensively the numbers, status and films of women practitioners in the contemporary UK industry.

Considering the cultural and financial dominance of Hollywood, this research gap may not be so surprising. However, the study of British Cinema is well established in the UK, and research on women and women's cinema is growing. By establishing a baseline history of women working in the twenty-first century UK Film industry, our research will compliment and extend other work coming out of the Women's Film and Television History Network - UK/Ireland that seeks to construct a history of women working in UK film and television up to 2000. A particular context for Calling the Shots is the rise and demise of the UK Film Council (2000-2011) and the takeover of its responsibilities by the BFI (a project partner).

Working closely with organisations supporting women in film in the UK, Calling the Shots will produce an historically specific and grounded analysis of the concerns and achievements of women working as writers, directors, producers, editors and cinematographers in the first fifteen years of this century. Under its auspices, two books and a journal issue will be produced which will intervene in academic debates about the contemporary UK film industry and twenty-first century female practitioners of film. The project will support one research assistant and two PhD students. We will host an international conference for academics and practitioners, developing cutting edge research on women and film, encouraging knowledge exchange between women filmmakers and academics, and sharing current research via public events in conjunction with our project partners. Calling the Shots will produce annual reports on its statistical findings, plus a bank of practitioner interviews. These will underpin our own outputs, and will also be made available to other researches and to the public through our project partnership with the BECTU History archive, who will store the interviews in perpetuity. In addition, we have planned events to showcase women's films at UK film festivals, and to host a public study day at a local cinema.

The project, and its methodologies, will develop strong links between female filmmakers and academics researching women in current cinema production. Most importantly, our analysis of careers, films and industry will establish a foundational history of women and UK film in the twenty-first century which will benefit contemporary academics, students, archivists and advocates. Traditionally, women's history has been a process of recovering the contributions of women that have been lost to or hidden by mainstream narratives. Our project will give future historians and researchers of women and film in the UK a foundation from which to build.

Planned Impact

Women are a drastically under-utilised resource for the UK film industry. This project investigates three interrelated areas which each have distinct impact potential:
1. It will show the precise nature of women's employment status across different roles in the industry, relevant to funders, financiers and policy-makers. In 2010 the Government announced its decision to abolish the UK Film Council (UKFC), transferring a central source of film funding to the British Film Institute. Other areas overseen by the UKFC transferred to public/private partnerships including Film London, the Production Guild, UK Screen, and Pinewood-Shepperton Studios. Importantly, the diversity unit of the UKFC was closed (whilst the BFI does have a diversity policy, its remit is different, with, as of yet, no comparable unit for targeting film funding towards projects with diverse personnel). In light of this, our research is prescient, timely and necessary. As the UKFC was founded in 2000 and our research covers the period of its existence and the first few years of film production after its demise, our data will offer specific insights into the value and effectiveness of the council's diversity initiatives, useful for those who have taken over some of the roles of UKFC.
2. The project will show the importance of promoting equality in the film industry through analysis and celebration of the interesting work which is produced when women are enabled to flourish in areas of production in which they are commonly under-represented. We expect educators of budding filmmakers at school-age as well as in higher education and film school training to benefit from interviews conducted with both women starting out in the industry and from more established filmmakers. Our analytic work (in the form of our books and academic conference activities) which focuses on films developed by and for women will inform public events detailed in our Pathways to Impact statement, such as festivals and special cinema events.
3. Our research provides UK-specific information which will feed into the work of charities and organisations promoting women's filmmaking in the UK, including Women in Film and Television UK (WFTVUK), and Bird's Eye View (BEV). BEV's most prominent activity is its annual women's film festival, but it also mounts national/regional screenwriting workshops for women starting out in the industry in conjunction with organizations such as Bafta and the National Film and Television School. In addition to holding an awards ceremony every year, Women in Film and Television UK runs mentoring programs for women in the industry, hosts networking evenings, lobbies for women's interests and collaborates with educational and industry bodies on research. Because our research is focused on the UK, it will directly influence the public work of both of these organisations, facilitating stronger effectiveness through deployment of precise and current information. Our interviews with practitioners will feed into more relevant development and focused educational and outreach activities, and both WFTUK and BEV are project partners with us, collaborating on Impact events. Project Partnership statements from BEV, Shetland Arts and Harbour Lights confirm the importance of this project in supporting their own outreach and educational agendas.
 
Title Female Practitioner Interviews 
Description One of the project's main objectives is to conduct record audio-visual interviews with 50 women filmmakers who work in the six key roles we have identified. By the end off the award we completed 59. They include interviews with women working in six key filmmaking roles: director, writer, producer, exec-producer, cinematographer, and editor. The interviews will be made publicly available at the end of the award when they are deported with the BECTU History Project. 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2018 
Impact The impact of these interviews has been on the individual filmmakers themselves who have told us that the process has had them rethinking their experiences of discrimination and their views toward diverse hiring practices. 
URL https://womencallingtheshots.com
 
Description The primary research conducted by 'Calling the Shots: women and contemporary film culture in the UK' includes both quantitative results and qualitative results that give new evidence for gender inequality in the British film industry.

In quantiative terms, the researchers have found that on British films, women remain historically under-represented as directors, editors, and cinematographers.

Counting the numbers of men and women working in these roles on 3,452 films in production from 2003 to 2015, they found that only 14% of all directors, 16% of all editors and only 7% of all cinematographers were women. Of those women, only 10% of directors, 2% of editors, and 4% of cintematographers were of Black, Asian, or Ethnic Minority identity, making only 1% of all directors, less than 1% of all editors and only .3% of all cinematographers BAME women.
Over the twelve-year period, the percentage of women directors increased by only 2 percentage points from 11% to 13%, and the percentage of women cinematographers increased by only 5 percentage points from 2% to 7%. Most significantly the percentage of editors decreased by 5% in that 12-year period.

In the project's most comprehensive data on films in-production during 2015, women are under-represented across all six key production roles, comprising only 13% of directors, 20% of screenwriters, 27% of producers, 18% of exec-producers, 17% of editors, and most disappointingly of all only 7% of all cinematographers.
Women producers fared best, though only reach the heights of 27%. Films with women producers are more likely to have at least one other woman in one of the other key roles. And yet 43% of films had no women producers at all.

In qualitative terms, we interviewed 50 women in the 6 key filmmaking roles under investigation (we exceeded this target). All but one of the interviews was recorded on digital video; one was audio-only (at the request of the subject); most were between 60-90 minutes long; many were conducted at the offices of our project partner Women in Film and TV UK in central London, though we also travelled to filmmaker's offices, interviewed them as they edited their films, and interviewed some whilst we were travelling elsewhere (eg USA, Scotland). These interviews provide information and insights into the working lives of women in contemporary British cinema. We interviewed women who were just starting out in their careers, more established mid-career women, and very senior women, and developed from this a strong sense of career trajectory and opportunity. We asked about career development, key projects, film school and other training, funding, mentors, collaborators, creative strategies, the effects of family and caring responsibilities on careers, and whether the interviewees felt that gender had affected their opportunities. We found that the tenor, tone and content of the interviews changed after #MeToo and #TimesUp in late 2017. This archive of interviews now forms one of Calling the Shots' major contributions to primary film historical research. We have used this recorded material in numerous public and academic presentations; this qualitative work makes a significant contribution to film historic knowledge which will be publicly available once the interviews are lodged in the BECTU History archive. The interview material also contributes original information and perspectives to the developing work-in-progress of the PI, Co-I and the PhD projects, including the PI's book on international co-productions and the Co-I's book on women writer-directors and their creative practices. We continue to grow our new website, including entries on each of our interviewees for public dissemination. Our interviewees include women at the height of their careers as well as at the beginning of their careers and most are still working. Some well-known names are Gurinder Chadha, Amma Asante, Sally Potter, Beeban Kidron, Sarah Gavron, Carol Morley, Nina Hellgren, Christine Langan, Lizzie Franckie and more.
Exploitation Route Our research is the only set on the UK industry that includes data on other key roles beyond director and writer. The BFI might use our data findings to develop their funding quotas to include the technical roles of cinematographer and editor, which they currently do not do. The data and the interviews might also be used by the BFI or other Film programming institutes such as the Barbican and others to organise film screenings and outreach events that are focused on women filmmakers in roles beyond director. The interviews will released to be housed at the BECTU History project archive (one of our project partners) they will be publicly available for scholars, journalists and members of the public to consult in perpetuity. This is an unprecedented contemporary resource of oral histories from women in the creative industries.
Sectors Creative Economy

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections

URL https://womencallingtheshots.com
 
Description The impact of Calling the Shots' data on the British film industry was built into our AHRC funding application. Two of our project partners have been key in helping our research have impact: the British Film Institute and Women in Film and Television - UK. The launch of our first dataset at BFI Southbank in May 2016, discussed above, was open to the public after invitations were sent to 30 key industry executives, producers, filmmakers, guild leaders, union leaders and activists. We first presented our data on gender behind the scenes on British films made in 2015 and then had 5 special guests respond before an open Q&A. Our panel guests were Lizzie Francke of the BFI Film Fund, producer Sarah Curtis (Mrs. Brown, Run Fat Boy Run), director Hope Dickson Leach (BFI-funded The Levelling), critic and Bechdel Test Fest founder Corinna Antrobus, Kate Kinninmont, CEO of WFTV-UK and director Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham). The data shared at this event was reported in The Guardian, The Independent, Screen International, The Telegraph, and Sight and Sound. The impact of Calling the Shots' research on the BFI's gender equality and diversity targets has been supported by our engagement with and impact on other film industry-related organizations and individual filmmakers. In addition to supporting our impact on public awareness about gender inequality in the film industry as outlined below, our second project partner, Women in Film and Television UK, has used our research to influence key decision makers in the British film industry. In May 2018, we presented new data at Cannes Film Festival networking events hosted by WFTV-UK. We presented our research showing that the UK industry does not include women any better than Hollywood does, with data on the percentage of women in British filmmaking either lower or higher by only a few points than in the bigger budget films made across the Atlantic. This report strongly dispelled a common assumption made about British filmmaking amongst the attendees. Several British news outlets ran stories on these reports, including The Glasgow Herald, one of Scotland's major newspapers, The Belfast Telegraph, Itv.com, the Independent.IE. and The Evening Express. Several of the filmmakers we have interviewed have said that our data and the experience of speaking to us about their careers has influenced them to think more about equality and diversity, and to seek out change and improvement in their productions. In 2020, the British Film Institute recognised the research from this project as a key support for the development and implementation of their Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Targets for all films funded by the BFI.
First Year Of Impact 2015
Sector Creative Economy,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
Impact Types Cultural

Policy & public services

 
Description BFI diversity standards
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
URL https://www.bfi.org.uk/industry-data-insights/reports/review-bfi-diversity-standards
 
Description Creative Majority report
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
URL https://www.kcl.ac.uk/cultural/resources/reports/creative-majority-report-v2.pdf
 
Description Locked down and locked out
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Citation in systematic reviews
URL https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/isir/documents/locked-down-locked-up-full-report-august...
 
Description Making the Creative Majority
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Citation in systematic reviews
URL https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/making-the-creative-majority-an-appg-for-creative-d...
 
Description No One Left Behind: Identifying Film and Television Workers Most at Risk of Hardship as a Result of Covid-19
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Citation in systematic reviews
Impact The Film and TV Charity used the systematic review to prioritise women and other minorities for its second COVID-19 Recovery Fund to help precarious workers in the Film and TV Sector. Over a million pounds was distributed to needy recipients
URL https://filmtvcharity.org.uk/news-event/covid-19-recovery-fund-announced/
 
Description Supporting BFI diversity, equality and inclusion target implementation
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
Impact The BFI targets result in more equality and diversity of the workforce making films funded by public money. This is a clear societal improvement of representation in public life. Please see Url below for more information.
URL https://www.bfi.org.uk/inclusion-film-industry/inclusion-targets
 
Description The Creative Majority
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Citation in systematic reviews
URL https://www.kcl.ac.uk/cultural/projects/creative-majority
 
Description The impact of COVID-19 on the DCMS sectors: A submission to the Digitial, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee inquiry
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Citation in systematic reviews
 
Description AHRC Impact Acceleration Account - University of Southampton
Amount £4,077 (GBP)
Organisation University of Southampton 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2023 
End 07/2024
 
Description Capability for Collections Fund
Amount £1,699 (GBP)
Organisation University of Southampton 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 04/2020 
End 08/2020
 
Description Public Engagement with Research Development Fund
Amount £3,895 (GBP)
Organisation University of Southampton 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 06/2018 
End 07/2018
 
Title Calling the Shots: Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority (BAME) Women working on UK-­qualifying films 2003-­2015 
Description Through the project's collaboration with the BFI, the Research Fellow has been given the list of feature films in production in the UK from 2003-2015. The RF is finding the gender and national identity of production personnel in six key roles (director, writer, producer, exec-producer, cinematographer, and editor), as well as noting if any of these persons are BAME. This data set finds all the BAME women in all six roles over a four year period. One key finding is that 90% of all films in the set had no BAME in any role. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact This dataset was used as evidence by the British Film Institute as reason for setting targets for the numbers of BAME women in production roles on BFI funded films. 
URL https://womencallingtheshots.com/reports-and-publications/
 
Title Gender Data of BFI Film list - 2003 
Description Through the project's collaboration with the BFI, the Research Fellow has been given the list of feature films in production in the UK from 2003-2015. The RF is finding the gender and national identity of production personnel in six key roles (director, writer, producer, exec-producer, cinematographer, and editor), as well as noting if any of these persons are BAME. This report has yet to be published on our website. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2016 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The report was also shared with Jack Newsinger a the University of Leicester and the CIDA Project (Creative Industries, Diversity and Austerity Project). Newsinger led a review for the BFI of all research on gender equality and diversity in the film industry, which included the data outcomes from our award. 
 
Title Gender Data of BFI Film list - 2004 
Description Through the project's collaboration with the BFI, the Research Fellow has been given the list of feature films in production in the UK from 2003-2015. The RF is finding the gender and national identity of production personnel in six key roles (director, writer, producer, exec-producer, cinematographer, and editor), as well as noting if any of these persons are BAME. This data has yet to be punished on our website. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Impact from this data base will be forthcoming when we collate all the annual reports and publish a report of reports that we will give to the BFI as well as make publicly available. 
 
Title Gender Data of BFI Film list - 2005 
Description Through the project's collaboration with the BFI, the Research Fellow has been given the list of feature films in production in the UK from 2003-2015. The RF is finding the gender and national identity of production personnel in six key roles (director, writer, producer, exec-producer, cinematographer, and editor), as well as noting if any of these persons are BAME. This data has yet to be punished on our website. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Impact from this data base will be forthcoming when we collate all the annual reports and publish a report of reports that we will give to the BFI as well as make publicly available. 
 
Title Gender Data of BFI Film list - 2015, budgets under £0.5 million 
Description Through the project's collaboration with the BFI, the Research Fellow has been given the list of feature films in production in the UK from 2003-2015. The RF is finding the gender and national identity of production personnel in six key roles (director, writer, producer, exec-producer, cinematographer, and editor), as well as noting if any of these persons are BAME. This data took a subset of films from the 2015 data - those with budgets under £5million - and counted the women and some of color in the production personnel. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact This data set report was shared with the attendees at the Underwire Festival who came to our workshop on gender inequality in the UK Film industry. 
 
Title Gender Data of BFI film list - 2015 
Description Through the project's collaboration with the BFI, the Research Fellow has been given the list of feature films in production in the UK from 2003-2015. The RF is finding the gender and national identity of production personnel in six key roles (director, writer, producer, exec-producer, cinematographer, and editor), as well as noting if any of these persons are BAME. Our first report on the year 2015 was published in May 2016 on our website, and presented at the BFI 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2016 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The report on the data for the gender of UK film production personnel in 2015 was shared with the BFI to include in the discussions and development of their five-year strategy, BFI2022. The report was also shared with Jack Newsinger a the University of Leicester and the CIDA Project (Creative Industries, Diversity and Austerity Project). Newsinger led a review for the BFI of all research on gender equality and diversity in the film industry, which included the data outcomes from our award. 
URL http://www.southampton.ac.uk/cswf/project/number_tracking.page?
 
Description BECTU 
Organisation Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union (BECTU)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Multiple 
PI Contribution The BECTU History Project seeks to record the oral histories of practitioners who have worked in the British film industry. Our recorded interviews with women filmmakers will be housed with BECTU's History Project upon completion of the grant to help build their collection.
Collaborator Contribution BECTU's History Project will be transcribing our interviews, which is an important contribution to the project's outputs. The History Project will also be housing the recorded interviews in perpetuity, so that they are easily available to other researchers in the future.
Impact The outcomes and the outputs from this collaboration will be in the future when the publications that draw on the interviews are published and when the recorded interviews are handed over to the History Project.
Start Year 2014
 
Description Project Partner: British Film Institute - Education and Research 
Organisation British Film Institute (BFI)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Our contribution to the BFI-Education and Research department has been our discovery of missing data in the sets produced for us (see below), which they have specifically asked us to look out for and to notify them of. When we complete our data analysis, our detailed reports on gender will contribute to their diversity initiatives and goals as a public service institution.
Collaborator Contribution The BFI-Education and Research department have given us data sets on all the British films in production from 2003-2015. These required the time and skill of one of their data and research staff members in order to both produce the documents and to spend time explaining them both via email and in person. After an initial in person meeting in October of 2015 with the PI, the Co-I and the RF, another two hour meeting was held between the PI and the research staff member to further clarify questions we had about the data. The information and the time shared with us by the BFI are central to the project's outcomes and impact agenda.
Impact Outputs from this collaboration are forthcoming. The first report on gender in UK film production based on the BFI's data will be published in May. Further reports will be published throughout 2016/2017.
Start Year 2014
 
Description Shetland Film Festival - Shetland Arts 
Organisation Shetland Arts Development Agency
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution The PI and Co-I brought two well-known women filmmakers to the festival - Joanna Hogg and Clio Barnard - to screen and give introductions to their films for audiences. Hogg and Barnard also joined the PI and Co-I for an audience Q&A after the PI and Co-I gave a talk on the parameters, research questions, and expected outputs of Calling the Shots that was well attended. The Co-I continues to work with the festival as a programmer with the express goal of including British women filmmakers.
Collaborator Contribution The Shetland Arts Development Agency, through their annual Film Festival, hosted our launch of Calling the Shots in September 2014, and gave us use of the Mareel auditorium, provided a projectionist and contributed to the marketing of our program, as well as hired cars for us to use on the island. The projectionists screened films by each of the women directors named above.
Impact The outcomes of this collaboration include the recorded interviews with Hogg and Barnard that will be included in our bank of practitioner interviews that will be housed with the BECTU archive.
Start Year 2014
 
Description Underwire 
Organisation Underwire Film Festival
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Underwire Festival runs a day of workshops for women working in or seeking to work in the UK film industry. Ou research team (Shelley Cobb, Linda Williams, and Natalie Wreyford) gave a presentation on our research and led a Q&A alongside the filmmaker Hope Dickson Leach. The award paid for the travel of four people to London.
Collaborator Contribution The Underwire Festival provided the room for the event in London and all advertising - a contribution of money, time and management.
Impact Because the Underwire Festival seeks to foreground women working in short films and at the early stages of their careers, we created a new data report on the numbers of women working in key filmmaking roles for UK film with a budget under £0.5million.
Start Year 2016
 
Description WFTV-UK 
Organisation Women in Film and Television (UK)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution So far, WiFT have been helping us, but as soon as our first report on the numbers of women working in UK film production is published, our contribution to WiFT will be their ability to use our reports to lobby various funding bodies and film production companies to put in place guarantees for equal representation of women in the British film industry workforce.
Collaborator Contribution WiFT are our main para-industry resource for contacts for our interviews with women filmmakers. They have been particularly helpful in finding for us women who work in the technical roles.
Impact The recorded interviews with women filmmakers are a direct outcome of this collaboration. They will be central to our scholarly outputs.
Start Year 2014
 
Description Winchester - Credible Screening and Discussion 
Organisation University of Winchester
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The collaboration was an event at the University of Winchester that included a screening of the documentary 'Credible, Likeable, Superstar, Role Model', a post screening discussion with the PI Shelley Cobb, Co-I Linda Williams, director of the film Becky Brand and CEO of WFTV-UK Kate Kinninmont. A reception followed at the end. The award paid for the travel of Brand and Kinninmont, the screening fee for the film, half the advertising fees and for a portion of the costs of the reception drinks and nibbles.
Collaborator Contribution The Faculty of Arts at the University of Winchester paid for the auditorium space, technology support, half the advertising fees, and a majority of the costs for the reception.
Impact This collaboration and even resulted in a film interview with the director Becky Brand. The even was multi-disciplinary in that the Faculty of Arts at Winchester is made up of Film, Media, Performing Arts, English, Creative Writing and American Studies.
Start Year 2017
 
Description 'One Leaves Every Minute: TV's Motherhood Penalty and How To Fix It' Edinburgh TV Festival August 2021 UK Arts Funders 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact About a hundred attendees listened to a workshop panel on how the television work culture creates stress and conflicts that force mothers out of the workforce.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description 2015 Gender in film data report and May 10 BFI Southbank event - Press Release 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The PI Shelley Cobb, the Co-I Linda Wiliams and the RF Natalie Wreyford wrote a press release outlining the data from our 2015 report with quotes from WFTV-UK CEO Kate Kinninmont and the filmmaker Joanna Hogg. A number of wide ranging media outlets published this release from The Guardian to ScreenDaily.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Aesthetica Festival presentation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact As part of the Aesthetica festivals workshop series, the investigators gave a presentation on the outcomes and aims of Calling the Shots and some portions of our observations from the data research so far. Audiences members included UG and PG students from universities in York, as well as practitioners who were showing their films at the festival. The Q&A session was very productive with questions from the audience that helped the investigators sharpen their aims, and offered insight by women practitioners, some of whom agreed to be interviewed by the investigators for the project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://www.asff.co.uk/asff2015/events/
 
Description Article in the Independent about women in film 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The PI Shelley Cobb and the RF Natalie Wreyford were interviewed for and quoted in a January 2017 article in The Independent titled 'We spoke to female film director who will dominate 2017 about gender inequality.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/female-film-directors-2017-female-ant...
 
Description Calling the Shots 2015 Report at BFI Southbank May 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Public event at the BFI Southbank on May 10, 2016 that included staff from the BFI, Channel 4 and the BBC film funds. There was also a panel discussion with the filmmakers Hope Dickson Leach, Sarah Curtis and Gurinder Chadha, as well as the BFI Executive Lizzie Francke and the journalist Corinna Antrobus. Attendees filled in an evaluation form. More than 100 people attended.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.southampton.ac.uk/cswf/project/number_tracking.page
 
Description Calling the Shots at National Film and Television School 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Research Fellow Natalie Wreyford presented "Calling the Shots: Women working in British film" to students at The National Film and Television School on 7/11/16. Evaluation forms were handed out and many said the even had impacted how they thought about their own role in promoting gender equality in British film industry.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Cannes Film Festival 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The PI, Co-I and Research Fellow presented new statistics to the Women's Film and Television UK event at the Cannes Film Festival. There was an audience of one 300 people, that was largely filmmakers, but also included media, industry leaders, and third sector professionals related to the film industry. Several attendees immediately reported that they our data reports gave them new knowledge to take to their organisations and use as evidence that change is needed to promote gender equality in filmmaking. Several others asked for more data and information, hoping that our research might be expanded to other key roles in the industry.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Cinematologists podcast 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The Cinematologists is a podcast for cinephiles that is created by two academics based at the University of Falmouth. The podcast is available to the public and disseminated widely. The PI and Co-I were interviewed by the creators about Calling the Shot's aims and goals.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://www.cinematologists.com/podcastarchive/2015/3/23/episode-3-whip-it
 
Description Facebook page for Calling the Shots 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The Facebook page for this award is used to advertise our events and our research. It has over 200 followers. Our posts are regularly liked by more than 30 people at one time. It often generates discussion amongst those who follow it.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL https://www.facebook.com/womencallingtheshots/
 
Description ICA Symposium on women's filmmaking in Contemporary Britain 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The Principle Investigator gave a presentation on the difficulties of constructing narratives of women's contemporary filmmaking at a symposium hosted by the Institute for Contemporary Arts in London. The event was organised by the eminent feminist film scholar Laura Mulvey. The audience consisted of the general public, but had several practitioners in attendance. The Q&A raised several important issues related to distribution and exhibition, that the PI will be feeding into her research.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL https://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/symposium-women-s-filmmaking-contemporary-britain
 
Description Lifelong Learning Day 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Twenty members of the public attended a Lifelong Learning Day at the University of Southampton. These largely pension-aged women were highly engaged and motivated to consider their moviegoing habits.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Press release - February 2018 - UK film industry just as bad as Hollywood 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact In February 2018, Calling the Shots published a press release detailing our latest data at the time on gender inequality in the UK film industry. The data showed that across several fields, the British film industry's problem with gender inequality is just as bad as Hollywood's. The release was picked up by several British newspapers, as well as Irish newspapers, and one in Canada as well.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Public symposium - Lithuania 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Out of Focus - Women in Film was organised by academics in Vilnius, Lithuania who are researching gender inequality in the Lithuanian film industry. They held a public symposium in which the shared the results of their research and then presented research by Calling the Shots along with other scholars from other national contexts to share and compare research on gender inequality in multiple film industries in Europe. Over 50 people, both practitioners and members of the public, attended the day and asked for further information on the research presented.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Public symposium - Stockholm, Sweden 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Swedish scholars researching women working in the film industry, won funding to bring together researchers focusing on gender inequality in various national film industries to share research, discuss comparative analysis, and to plan for further funding one day. A second day was a public symposium comparing national film industry contexts, which Calling the Shots participated in and shared our results.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Sarah Smyth at Brilliant Club outreach programme 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact PhD student Sarah Smyth went into 2 secondary schools across a period of 4 months to teach the students university-style seminars about my research. She ran a course for them entitled 'Women On-Screen and Off-Screen: Cinema's Missing Stories', where we reflected on the ways in which women's stories are missing in cinema and the ways in which women attempt to overcome this. We looked at British female filmmakers including Sarah Gavron, Amma Asante and Gurinder Chadha as our case study. At the end of the course, the students produced an essay based on the question, 'Using one of the films we have looked at, discuss to what extent this film helps to overcome the problem of women's missing stories in cinema.'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Shelley Cobb interviewed for Telegraph article on women and film 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The PI Shelley Cobb was interviewed by The Telegraph for a July 2016 article titled 'Women in film have been cut out of the picture'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/work/women-in-film-have-been-cut-out-of-the-picture/
 
Description Shetland Film Festival Calling the Shots launch 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact 40 members of the local Lerwick community, across a wide age range, attended a presentation given by the PI and the Co-I on the aims and objectives or our research and the scope of the project. After the presentation, the filmmakers Joanna Hogg and Clio Barnard joined the investigators for a Q&A discussion that initiated a very passionate discussion that the young attendees were particularly involved in. The investigators handed out short questionnaires at the end, and the audience's responses have been used to improve further presentations.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
URL https://issuu.com/shetlandarts/docs/sp-2014
 
Description Southampton International Women's Week presentation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact About 40 members of the University of Southampton staff and student population along with a few members of the general public. This talk was a developed version of the presentation given at the Shetland Film Festival based on the responses we received. Again, we handed out questionnaires and received additional perspective on our project. The Q&A again was full of provocative questions that were useful for sharpening our aims. Several responders said that our presentation had changed their ideas on women's films.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://www.southampton.ac.uk/diversity/news/events/2015/03/12-calling-she-shots-women-in-film.page
 
Description The Pool 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The Co-I Linda Williams wrote an article for the popular British women's website The Pool titled An Expert View on Why There are So Few Women Working in Film.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL https://www.the-pool.com/arts-culture/film/2016/20/linda-ruth-williams-on-women-in-film
 
Description Twitter feed for Calling the Shots 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The Twitter feed for this award has 1,285 followers. We use it for advertising our events, our research, and raising debates about women in film. The feed often generates discussion amongst followers as well as media requests.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL https://twitter.com/WomenCallShots
 
Description Underwire Film Festival 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Joint presentation by Cobb, Williams and Wreyford at Underwire Film Festival's Wired Women weekend on November 26, 2016 on Findings from films in production in 2015 and films in production in 2015 made for less than £0.5m, and Findings from Practitioner Interviews so far. The debate about gender inequality with women working in and wanting to work in the industry was wide ranging and impactful for the audience, many of whom spoke to us individually after the event.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.underwirefestival.com
 
Description WFTV Table Talk: The Impact of Covid-19 on Parents and Carers 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Natalie Wreyford presented her research on mothers and carers in the industry to this panel organised by Women in Film and Television Network, UK.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Winchester - Credible Screening and Discussion 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact - Co-hosted event with University of Winchester Arts Research Seminar series including screening of the documentary Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model and a Q&A with the director Becky Brand, February 2017. Followed by a discussion with PI Shelley Cobb, Co-I Linda Williams and CEO of WFTV-UK Kate Kinninmont. A large portion of the audience were undergraduates students in Film Studies and Film/Media Production. Many stayed after the event to tell us about how it inspired them and challenged them to pursue their own future careers and to think about gender equality and diversity in their filmmaking process.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/credible-likeable-superstar-role-model-women-in-film-industry-discuss...
 
Description Winchester presentation on interviewing 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact Over 100 students and members of the local Winchester community attended a presentation put on by the Co-I along with the BBC film reviewer Mark Kermode. The Co-I's portion of the presentation included discussion of the interviews of women filmmakers for Calling the Shots.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://www.winchester.ac.uk/newsandevents/Pages/BBC-film-critic-leads-University-lecture-spotlightin...
 
Description Women and Hollywood article 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The PI Shelley Cobb wrote an article for the widely known and influential media site Women and Hollywood. The article is titled Why Research on Women Filmmakers Matters to Us All.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL https://blog.womenandhollywood.com/why-research-on-women-filmmakers-matters-to-us-all-bc4bcf59476d#....