Improving gender equality in European audiovisual production

On 10 December 2024, and for the fifth consecutive yearn the Media, Entertainments & Arts sector of UNI Europa, the European Women’s Audiovisual Network (EWA),  and the European Film Agency Directors Association (EFAD), in partnership with the International Federation of Actors (FIA), the Federation of European Screen Directors (FERA), the Lab Femmes de Cinema, the European Audiovisual Observatory, and Cineuropa organised a webinar on gender equality statistics and strategies in European audiovisual production.

The objective was to keep monitoring the evolution of the presence of women on and off European screens, maintain the topic of gender equality firmly on the audiovisual industry agenda, and to keep advocating for relevant and efficient actions.

During the webinar the latest numbers of the European Audiovisual Observatory and the 2024 study of the Lab Femmes de Cinéma were presented. Between 2015 and 2023, the share of women in the roles of directors, composers, writers, editors, DOPs and producers rose by 5 per cent from 19.4 to 24.4 per cent. 

While this progress in the representation of women in the monitored positions across European audiovisual productions is too slow, the number and scope of initiatives implemented by film funds to promote gender equality in the sector is growing. This led webinar participants to try and understand the reasons for such slow progress and identify best practices from across Europe to continue to push for change in an effective way.

Emma Rafowicz, French Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from the S&D Group, Vice-Chair of the Committee on Culture and Education and Member of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, reaffirmed the importance of safe sets for women in the European audiovisual industry, as well as the importance of promoting gender equality in education, and of supporting women careers for ex. through work/life balance, access to funding and pay transparency.

Good practices presented from film funds in Austria and Slovenia proved that positive change is possible thanks to voluntary and persistent actions such as gender incentives, gender budgeting, or quotas on funding.   

The role of trade unions, social dialogue and collective bargaining was also underlined with examples of actions by Scen o Film to promote intimacy coordination and work-life balance, to name only a few of the initiatives taken by the union in Sweden.

The importance of seriously addressing the gender pay gap in the audiovisual industry was finally also mentioned, highlighting the recommendations put forward by EWA and UNI Europa.

The session was be recorded and is available for replay on the website of Cineuropa.