Tina Fey & Amy Poehler
2013 was a rough year for women in film. Though The Hunger Games: Catching Fire beat out Iron Man 3 as the highest-grossing film of the year, and Sandra Bullock established herself as one of the most bankable movie stars even if she spends most of a movie alone onscreen, employment of women behind the camera fell below 1998 levels.
According to a new study on the so-called “Celluloid Ceiling,” only 16 percent of behind-the-scene roles (writers, directors, producers, editors, etc.) were filled by women in 2013, down two percent from 2012. Women made up only six percent of all directors, down three percent from 2012. And only 10 precent of Hollywood writers were women last year, down five percent from 2012 and three precent from 1998.
So that’s the bad news. The good news is 2014 looks a little bit better. Beloved female writers and directors like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Angelina Jolie and Gillian Flynn have TV shows and movies premiering this year. The big and small screens will get doused with a fair share of female perspective this year — though there’s still a good deal of progress to be made.
Here are some TV shows and movies from women directors and writers that we have to look forward to in 2014.