Progress for female film directors stalled in 2025; reached the lowest level in 7 years

2025 did not end with good news for film directors.

According to an annual study by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, obtained by the NYTimes, the progress of female film directors in 2025 has stalledand the Films directed by women hit their lowest level in seven years.

• This year's percentage of female directors is the lowest since 2018, when five female directors directed just 4.5% of the year's fiction films.

In the study called “Inclusion in Directing: Analysis of Gender and Race/Ethnicity of Directors,” only nine women (8.1%) were behind the camera in fiction films in 2025, compared to 102 men (91.9%), while 15 women and 97 men directed fiction films in 2024.

“The percentage and number of female directors in 2025 was significantly lower than in 2024”indicate the main conclusions of the study, which analyzes the 1900 highest-grossing films from 2007 to the present.

“Furthermore, 2025 was virtually the same as 2008, 17 years ago. These findings represent a complete reversal of any progress made behind the scenes in recent years,” the findings continue.

Part of the progress of more opportunities for female directors was obtained from the #MeToo movement of 2017 and Time's Up of 2018. In 2019, 12 female directors were in charge of film projects, in 2020 it decreased to 6, possibly due to the massive closure of cinemas and projects stalled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2021 there were 9, 10 in 2022, 14 in 2023, and 15 in 2024.

In 2025, only two directors carried out original projects: Celine Song con Materialistsy Hikari con Rental Family.

Freakier Friday of Nisha Ginatra, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 of Emma Tammiy I Know What You Did Last Summer of Jennifer Kaytin Robinson They are sequels; the acclaimed Hamnet of Chloe Zhao is the adaptation of the novel of the same name by Maggie O'Farrell, and Hedda of Nia DaCosta reimagines Henrik Ibsen's 1891 stage drama.

And although Elio of Pixar and commercial success KPop Demon Huntersare original works, are credited to a team of co-directors that includes women filmmakers.

The study found that, as of 2007, women represent just 6.6% of the total 2,002 directors, with just 104 individual directors during that period. Of these female directors, 95 (4.8%) are white, while 38 (1.9%) come from underrepresented backgrounds.