The percentage of women directors of the top films at the North American box office fell to a seven-year low in 2025 and dropped nearly 40% year-on-year, according to the latest study from Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative.
The report, ‘Inclusion In The Director’s Chair’, examines director gender and race/ethnicity related to the 100 highest-grossing films of the year as of December 29, 2025, and incorporates findings on directors of the 1,900 top-grossing films spanning 2007 to 2025.
Out of 111 directors behind the top films in 2025, the percentage of women fell to 8.1% or nine individuals compared to 13.4% in 2024. This is the lowest level since 2018, when women directed 4.5% of the top 100 films of the year, yet higher than the 6.6% average over the 19-year timespan going back to 2007.
The top nine in order of North American box office per Box Office Mojo, which is cited as a source in the report, are: Emma Tammi, Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 ($119.9m); Nisha Ganatra, Freakier Friday ($94.2m); Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian, Elio, ($72.9m); Celine Song, Materialists ($36.5m); Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, I Know What You Did Last Summer ($32.2m); Maggie Kang, KPop Demon Hunters ($24.3m); Chloe Zhao, Hamnet ($10.5m, still in release); and Hikari, Rental Family ($10m).
Turning to both gender and race/ethnicity, 5.4% or six directors in 2025 were women of colour (exactly the same as in 2024), marking the first time in the 19-year span that women of colour outnumbered white women directors (three). The study noted that 2.7% of the top directors in 2025 were white women, 18.9% were underrepresented men, and 73% were white men.
Just under one-quarter of directors (24.3%) came from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups in 2025, on par with 2024 (24.1%), and considerably higher than the 12.5% reported in 2007.
“The 2025 data reveals that progress for women directors has been fleeting,” Smith said. “While it is tempting to think that these changes are a result of who is in the Oval Office, in reality these results are driven by executive decision-making that took place long before any DEI prohibitions took effect. Many of these films were greenlit and in pre-production before the 2024 election.”
Films by women and men received roughly equal ratings by critics as measured by average and median Metacritic scores. The same result was noted for films by white and underrepresented directors. In contrast, women of colour received the highest critics ratings across all four groups.
“It is clear that when it comes to directors, hiring decisions are not made solely based on performance,” Smith said. “If that were the case, then women of colour would receive significantly more opportunities to work behind the camera in film. These results demonstrate that the quality of movies by women of colour is not only overlooked, it is actively ignored.”
Distributor hiring practices
The report also gauged distributors’ hiring practices from 2007 to 2025, where Donna Langley-led Universal Pictures emerges top of the pile in terms of women and underrepresented directors.
The two data sets involve significant differences in the output levels of each distributor over the timespan, however based on the available data Universal hired women to direct 32 out of 341 films (9.4%) released during the 19-year period, followed by Disney on 18 out of 226 (7.9%) and other distributors on 23 out of 276 (8.3%). Paramount scored lowest on four out of 203 or 1.9%.
Looking at underrepresented directors, Universal led the hiring list on 67 out of 341 or 19.65%, followed by Lionsgate on 32 out of 163 or 19.63%. Paramount came bottom again on 9.4% with 19 out of 203. Over the 19-year span, underrepresented women directed 38 out of 1,900 films.
The study noted there were “significantly higher percentages of women” directing films in U.S. Dramatic Competition at Sundance Film Festival (they account for 64% of the 10-film line-up in the upcoming edition that runs January 22-February 1, 2026), television episodes (37% of episodes in 2023-24 per Directors Guild Of America), and Netflix films (20.5% of the 2024 slate).
The study noted that 72.7% of the directors in Sundance’s 2026 U.S. Dramatic Competition are not white.
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