Female directors suffered a “complete reversal of any progress” in 2025, according to a new study out of USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, as the industry hit a seven-year low in women behind the year’s top 100 films.
A total 111 directors were credited on the 100 top U.S. box office films of 2025, and only nine women — or 8.1% — were among the boys’ club. That’s compared to 13.4% in 2024, according to the “Inclusion in the Director’s Chair” study.
The steep 5.3% drop in gender equity behind the camera reflected the stats seen in 2008’s top films — representing “a complete reversal of any progress that was achieved behind the camera over the last few years,” the study reads. Over 19 years and 1,900 top movies, women represent 6.6% of all directors.
“The 2025 data reveals that progress for women directors has been fleeting,” said Dr. Stacy L. Smith, the study’s author and founder of the initiative. “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.”
Only nine women directed top 100 films in 2025: Nisha Ganatra (“Freakier Friday”), Emma Tammi (“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2”), Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian (“Elio”), Celine Song (“Materialists”), Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (“I Know What You Did Last Summer”), Maggie Kang (“KPop Demon Hunters”), Hikari (“Rental Family”) and Chloé Zhao (“Hamnet”).
Additionally, the study found no difference in average Metacritic scores between films directed by men and women across the full 19-year period from 2007 to 2025, indicating that the quality of films from men and women are the same.
Women of color made up 5.4% of directors across the top 100 films. This marks the first time in the study’s history where women of color directors outnumber white women directors (2.7%). All six women of color who directed top-grossing films in 2025 were Asian.
Women of color directors also earned the highest Metacritic scores of any group, with a median score of 62.5 compared to 56 for white men, 56 for underrepresented men and 54 for white women.
“It is clear that when it comes to directors, hiring decisions are not made solely on the basis of performance,” Smith said. “If that were the case, then women of color would receive significantly more opportunities to work behind the camera in film. These results demonstrate that the quality of movies by women of color is not only overlooked, it is actively ignored.”
Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. and Lionsgate did not hire a single woman director for films included in the study in 2025. Walt Disney Studios led with three women directors, followed by Universal Pictures and other distributors with two each.
Read the full “Inclusion in the Director’s Chair: Analysis of Director Gender and Race/Ethnicity Across the 1,900 Top Films from 2007 to 2025” report from USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative here.
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