In 2014 Women kept disappearing.

If you're not already familiar with the Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film from San Diego State University you should be. They do annual reports of the representation of women in front of and behind the camera.

In 2014 among the top 100 grossing movies 
Women represent 12% of the protagonists. The number of women who were represented as major characters and speaking characters were the same as last year,  both figures were about 30%. A staggering 74% of all women characters were white. 

If you further read the study there are interesting statistics regarding the decrease of female characters from their 30's to 40's compared to the increase of male characters in the same age range. There are also statistics regarding the role of women in leadership positions, whether their marital status is known, and whether they were identified via a work related role (ie, doctor, lawyer) vs a personal role (ie, mother, sister.) It's a pretty clear analysis of the ways in which women are marginalized on film.

Their study for the role of women behind the camera looked at the top 250 domestic grossing films in 2014. 
Specifically they looked at the roles of directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers.

"38% of films employed 0 or 1 woman in the roles considered. 23% of films employed 2 women, 29% employed 3 to 5 women, 7% employed 6 to 9 women, and 3% employed 10 to 14 women. In contrast, no films employed 0 or 1 man in the roles considered, and 69% employed 10 to 27 men."

A whopping 93% of films had no female director, and 79% of the films had no female writer.

The figures for women working as cinematographers or composers? Even more depressing.

Women looking to work in these industries should see these figures as empowering. Awareness can change views. These are opportunities for women to break into these new markets. It might be a challenge to find someone out of the ordinary for roles in front of and behind the camera, but we need unique voices to keep movies alive.

Some fantastic films came out this year that told the stories of women, and by women including The Hunger Games, Wild, Maleficent, Selma, Cake, Gone Girl, Camp X Ray, Obvious Child, and more. If you want more films like those, get out there and make those movies.

• It's a Man's (Celluloid) World: On-Screen Representation of Female Characters in 2014
• Celluloid Ceiling: Behind the Scenes Employment in 2014
• The Hollywood Reporter - Major Film Roles for Women drop in 2014

2 Female Directors in the running for the Palme d'Or

Film Festivals are these magical places where random movies, good or bad, are screened for awards and money and even better, buzz. At the pinnacle of movie buzz is the Canne Film Festival.

We often talk about Sundance Film Festival because Sundance has been a huge supporter of diversity, and in particular women writers and directors. Go Sundance!

Cannes is a little different, focusing less on independent movies, and more on international prestige. It's where movies go to find distribution, and BIG movies go to find awards. Past Palme d'Or (Best Film) winners include Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, and Michael Moore.

I like to think of the Palme d'Or as not being the best movie of the year, but definitely as the most talked about. You may not have seen The Tree of Life (Winner, 2011) but you probably heard about it that year. It is the representation of in-the-moment cinema.

Since the inception of the Palme d'Or award in 1975 only one female director has ever won, in 1993 Jane Campion for The Piano. It might be worth noting that last year in 2013, Blue is the Warmest Color won the award and for the first time in Canne history, the two lead actresses were also awarded the Palme d'Or as a special prize.

In the 2014 selection, it was specifically mentioned that of the 49 films selected, 15 featured female directors.
A huge increase from the past few years where Canne has specifically been the target of criticism over the issue. 2 of the female directed films are currently still in the competition for the Palme d'Or.

Good luck to Naomi Kawase for Still the Water as well as Alice Rohrwacher for Le Meraviglie.

HuffPo: Cannes Film Festival Doubles Female Directors To Compete For Palme d'Or

I also wanted to point out that 3 Canadian films were also announced, and as Canadian screenwriters that's a big deal for us. A Canadian film has never won the Palme d'Or.