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In February, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences faced accusations of sexism and racism for the near-absence of women and racial minorities within its roster of 2015 Oscar nominees. Much of the onus has been placed on the members of the Academy, but many have pointed out that the barriers women and people of colour face in the film industry exist beyond the institution’s bounds.
As a CineCoup Super Fan, the direction in which to investigate systemic inequality in content creation seemed obvious. When compared to traditional studio models, the CineCoup film accelerator is a relatively accessible vehicle. In order for a project to qualify, a group of 3 must come together to pitch a genre film, pay a fee of $60-$120 (depending on time of registration), and create a profile on the platform. Registration doesn’t even require a budget breakdown, production plan, artistic rationale, or many of the other documents emerging filmmakers struggle to deliver to traditional funding entities. So long as projects meet the deadline, they can participate in the first wave of the competition. Only after do fans have a say in what advances and what gets eliminated. Compared to Hollywood and even the traditional Canadian filmmaking institutions to a certain degree, CineCoup is no game of “Who do you know”. So long as you turn in your homework on time, you can participate.
Before presenting my findings, I would like to stress that the research I have conducted is in no way scientific. I decided to stick to investigating gender because of the gendered grammar inherent in the English language. Pronouns are declarations of gender identity that are deeply embedded in the English language and no such parallel can be found for other forms of ethnic, cultural, sexual, and linguistic identities.
The data I retrieved was accumulated by scanning the bios and social media sites of each individual filmmaker for the pronouns by which they referred to themselves. I will be the first to recognize the limitations of this method. As this method is indirect and does not give the opportunity of its subjects to explicitly self-identify in a confidential space, it inadequately acknowledges the full spectrum of gender identity and leans heavily upon a gender binary.
The 2015 CineCoup Film Accelerator kicked off with 73 teams of 3. Of the 219 original participants, fewer than 23% were female. Only 9 of the 73 groups were female majority groups (groups consisting of 2 or 3 female filmmakers). Nearly half of the groups were composed of 3 men whereas less than 5% of groups were exclusively female.
The most common role claimed by female project leads was that of a producer. 26 out of 89 project leads claiming a producer role were women. Women were also proportionally better represented in Marketing/Social Media roles as more than 35% of claimers were women. Female filmmakers remained strikingly underrepresented in arguably the most important creative roles. Less than 25% of project lead writers were women. Only 6 women in all of CineCoup claimed to be working in a directing function.
I would like to remind readers that the level of filtration groups must go through in registration pales in comparison to that experienced in more traditional funding models. So, if this platform is more accessible than any other studio or funding institution, why is there still such a gender imbalance?
Does it have to do with the call for genre films? The kinds of movies that lie under the genre banner are also the kinds of movies that are most likely to depict women as objects of extreme violence and overt sexualization.
Perhaps networks still have a large role to play. “We’ve been making films together since high school” was a recurring narrative within a number of all-male CineCoup teams. It was the story of ComedyCoup winners HumanTown and that narrative seems to gel well with CineCoup’s goals. “What we’re really looking for are strong TEAMS” states CineCoup’s FAQ. Are we seeing the same kind of early film collectives happening in school with girls as we are seeing with boys? If not, what can we do to encourage their formation? What can we do to encourage the formation of mixed-gender film collectives in school?
I remain optimistic that new platforms and alternative funding structures – CineCoup included – can become vehicles for social change. Its mandate of fostering Canadian content creation and audience engagement from coast to coast is already empowering emerging filmmakers that don’t otherwise have access to resources and fans. It’s also given fans who feel inadequately represented in traditional media a chance to find and support content that speaks to them.
However, as CineCoup grows and becomes an institution in its own right, perhaps it can grow to become a resource for women in film. By forging alliances with organizations like Women in Film and Television, leading workshops in social media marketing and audience building, and sponsoring networking events, the studio may be able to have a positive impact on inequality and underrepresentation in film.
With that said, CineCoup does not exist in a vacuum. As the data suggests, there are barriers that exist beyond the reach of individual institutions at play. I hope to see the conversation about underrepresentation in media examine the underlying forms of sexism and racism that exist in the social fabric upon which our educational and filmmaking institutions are built.
