Netflix has achieved gender equality in key roles across its films and series, however … [+]
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The politician, To all the boys I loved so much, Virgin River, dead to me —Many of Netflix’s recent critical and commercial successes have featured women in the lead role.
Black production has improved with shows and films like On my Block, When they see us and White people.
But improvements are still to be made to the climber, a new independent study report published today found. The USC Annenberg Inclusion Campaign, which will explore diversity and inclusion in entertainment, examined Netflix original titles, English language series and film titles that came from the US from January 2018 to December 2019.
The climber has now pledged to continue the study for a further six years and has introduced a Creative Equity Fund, a $ 100 million fund to be distributed worldwide over five years, with a focus on construction talent pipes for underrepresented communities.
The aim is to build on the progress outlined in the report, which found that of the 22 inclusion indicators examined for film and series, 19 there was year-on-year improvement.
“I rarely have anything positive to say, so this report was a real recap of my usual dissemination of information,” said Dr Stacy L. Smith, founder and director of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the School of Communication. and Annenberg News, at a conference sponsored by Netflix to discuss the study.
She noted that Netflix is ahead of the curve. The Campaign has only seen a wide-ranging change over time within the largest film industry rather than a series of efforts and start-ups, while scripted TV has seen a steady increase in inclusion.
Netflix outperforms industry average in hiring women of color as leaders (although that’s a low bar, with another Campaign report last year finding that women of color across the film industry representing less than 1% of the directors).
Netflix has reached gender equality in key roles across movies and series. In 2018-’19, 48% of Netflix movie directors were identified by women or women, compared to 41% for the larger film industry. Equality outside of camera is still a way off. Two-thirds of writers and nearly three-quarters of directors were men.
Black on-screen production has grown exponentially, with black lead and co-directors representing 13 percent of Netflix’s fare, roughly equal to the U.S. population. Production is higher in film (18.3%) than TV (9.1%).
But Netflix also has areas to deal with. During the study period, more than half of the films and screenings did not feature even a single character from Hispanic / Latino, Middle Eastern / North African, American Indian / Alaskan or Hawaiian / Pacific Islander Indigenous communities.
Production is particularly out of proportion among Hispanics, who represent 18.5% of the population and only 4.7% of Netflix directors and co-directors. Asian production is also a long way off, at 5.9% of the population and 2.3% of Netflix directing and co-directing.