Female Film Directors Increase, but OTT Decreases... Flat Portrayals Persist

Still from the movie 'Citizen Deokhee'. Provided by Showbox

Among the top 30 highest-grossing commercial films released last year, five were directed by female directors.

According to the 2024 Korean Film Gender Statistics report released by the Korean Film Council on the 7th, an analysis of 37 commercial films with a net production cost of over 3 billion KRW showed that among the top 30 highest-grossing films, the female-directed films included "Pilot" (director Kim Han-gyeol), "Citizen Deok-hee" (director Park Young-joo), "She Died" (director Kim Se-hwi), and "Love in a Big City" (director Lee Eon-hee). Overall, the proportion and frequency of female personnel increased.

Among the top 30 highest-grossing films, 16 passed the Bechdel Test, accounting for 59.3% of the 27 films surveyed. This is the highest figure since the gender statistics survey began in 2017.

Among the 182 films released last year, female key creative personnel included 48 directors (24.0%), 90 producers (25.6%), 85 executive producers (35.0%), 91 lead actors (48.1%), 75 screenwriters (34.7%), and 20 cinematographers (8.9%).

The Korean Film Council explained, "Although the number of female characters in lead and supporting roles in Korean commercial films has increased quantitatively, 44.4% of the surveyed films depicted stereotypical characters in the stereotype test, which examines the complexity of female characters. Apart from the quantitative increase, the portrayal of female characters still tends to be fragmented."

While the proportion of female creative personnel increased across all occupations, gender imbalance remained. In commercial films with a net production cost of over 3 billion KRW, the "male director-male lead" ratio accounted for 81.3%. Looking at the gender ratio of key creative personnel by occupation (director, producer, executive producer, lead actor, screenwriter, cinematographer) overall, excluding lead actors, the female participation rate did not exceed the 30% range in any occupation based on actual releases. In particular, the cinematographer occupation showed a lack of female personnel, recording zero women for three consecutive years in both commercial films and OTT original films.

In online video service (OTT) original films, the overall participation frequency of female personnel decreased. Among six OTT original films, only one film, "Rogiwan" (director Kim Hee-jun), was directed by a woman, and there were no films with a female lead actor.