A new study shows that Hollywood films produced by women saw a sharp decline in 2025 – a near 50 percent drop from its peak in 2023.
The ReFrame report from the Sundance Institute and Women in Film, which promotes gender-balanced film productions, said women were hired for less leadership roles in 2025, per TheWrap:
The 2025 ReFrame Report, which analyzes the top 100 films of the year according to IMDb Pro, found that 26 of the films surveyed qualified for the organization’s ReFrame Stamp, which denotes that a film meets the group’s criteria for hiring women, nonbinary and trans people in key roles both in front of and behind the camera. From 2020 to 2024, around 30 films were determined to be gender-balanced productions.
In the director’s chair, the backslide is even more stark. In 2023, 20 films in the IMDb Top 100 were directed by women. In 2025, that count fell to 11 films, the lowest since 2019. In 2024, the surveyed films had 51 central roles going to female actors, including one transgender actor in “Emilia Perez” star Karla Sofia Gascon.
That count fell to 39 roles in 2025, with only seven of those going to women of color, the lowest count in the latter category since 2018. The only position that did not see backsliding in 2025 was producers, as 55 of the top 100 films of 2025 had at least one female producer, the most since 2019 with 56.
Women in Film CEO Kirsten Schaffer said the studies that women’s opportunities in the industry might be narrowing as it shifts away from female-led projects.
“Collectively, we have the power to change that. By making intentional choices guided by the ReFrame Stamp criteria, those with hiring power have a clear path to building a more equitable industry, one production at a time,” she said.
ReFrame founders Cathy Schulman and Keri Putnam said the envisioned the ReFrame project as a stepping stone for “women, nonbinary and transpeople” to enter key leadership roles.
“This was meant as a floor, not a ceiling, on our way to inclusive hiring. The fact that even this baseline remains a minority achievement is alarming. Instead of raising the bar, we’re now seeing productions falling below it. This is not progress. This is a reversal,” the pair said.
The study did, however, note that two female-led projects – Chloe Zhao’s (pictured, center) Hamnet and Maggie Kang’s KPop Demon Hunters – were cultural milestones picking up multiple Oscar nominations and awards. A Chronicles of Narnia series directed by Greta Gerwig (Barbie) will be released in November of this year.