On Camerimage and the “Think Cinematographer, Think Male” Problem (Guest Column)

First director Steve McQueen (Blitz) and now helmer Coralie Fargeat (The Substance). Both are noticeably absent from the Camerimage Film Festival in Toruń, Poland this week. Why? Because festival director Marek Zydowicz made sexist comments suggesting that inclusion of women cinematographers (and directors for that matter) could lead to “mediocre film productions.”

It is in this context I turn to the data my team at the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has collected for years. Partnering with the Adobe Foundation, we recently assessed all above- and 10 below-the-line positions across 465 U.S. studio and mini major movies that brought in at least $1 million between 2019 and 2023. The findings for women cinematographers are grim. Only 21 movies had a woman cinematographer attached (only 6 of which had a woman of color DP), which is a paltry 4.5 percent. Put differently, 444 or 95.5 percent of films were shot by men. These numbers make it clear that no one is “rushing to correct past wrongs,” and the pace of change is surely not “fanatical.”

Simply documenting the prevalence of women cinematographers in film illuminates the battle artists who are women, particularly women of color, face working (or trying to work) in a male-dominated industry (and union). This grave imbalance is so bizarre for multiple reasons, but I will only highlight one data point in this article. It is also the reason that provides a direct answer to Zydowicz’s query about inclusion leading to mediocre productions.

We bifurcated the sample of the 465 aforementioned films into two groups: one group with at least one woman cinematographer attached and the other group did not. Then, we assessed Metacritic scores (aggregated average of critics’ reviews) to see if the groups’ movies differed in terms of critical reception. An interesting and compelling result emerged: films with women cinematographers had higher average Metacritic scores (Mean = 66.1) than films with only men as cinematographers (Mean = 58.9). Very simply, movies with women cinematographers outperform movies with men cinematographers. This finding, once again, directly counters the idea that women produce lower quality movies than men. 

It is important to note that the 21 movies with women cinematographers were directed by a majority of women (10 movies) and men of color (6 movies). Only five white male directors worked with women cinematographers across the sample of 465 films. This not only short circuits the path to career sustainability and generational wealth for women DPs but also presents audiences with a singular worldview and perspective. Isn’t art about imagination, creativity and bringing new voices and outlooks to life?

There are so many talented cinematographers whose desire to work is eclipsed by a “think cinematographer, think male” bias. Without safeguards in place, these biases go unchecked, are perpetuated across countries and decades, and we lose generations of artists. I applaud folks like McQueen and Fargeat for calling out bias and rejecting explicit oppression.  

This antiquated discussion about women’s prowess behind the camera can be summed up with this: Women’s work as cinematographers is comparable to (and in other cases, better than) men’s. Perhaps it is time to move the “debate” from a question of why to hire women as cinematographers to one that asks how to increase their ranks behind the camera. For anyone ready to engage in that conversation, I’m ready to take your call.