A new study has found that less than 1 in 6, or 14.4%, of movies this year will be directed solely by women. The research, conducted by NoDeposit365, considered 104 movies that are confirmed to release in 2024, to find the percentage of movies directed by males, females or a combination of the two. 

They found that across these titles, only 14.4% will be directed by women – just 15 out of the 104 movies. Interestingly, two of those included are Marvel films – Madame Web (S.J Clarkson), and Venom 3 (Kelly Marcel). Madame Web also primarily features an all-female lead cast including Dakota Johnson, Syndey Sweeney, and Emma Roberts.

Sam Taylor-Johnson’s biographical movie Back to Black is also releasing this year, detailing the life and music of the late Amy Winehouse.

Movies with female directors releasing this year:

A staggering 82.7% of upcoming titles (82 out of 104) are set to be directed by men this year, with action and horror films taking up the largest portion. This includes the eagerly anticipated Dune: Part Two (Denis Villeneuve) and Joker: Folie à Deux (Todd Phillips).

In terms of a collaboration between the sexes, only 3 out of 104 movies (2.8%) had both a male and female director on board. These titles include the recently released remake of Mean Girls (Samantha Jayne, Arturo Perez Jr), Kung Fu Panda 4 (Mike Mitchell, Stephanie Stine), and Horrorscope (Spencer Cohen, Anna Halberg).

Olivia King, a spokesperson from NoDeposit365 said: “For a long time, filmmaking was perceived as a domain predominantly occupied by male directors, but this perception is clearly an outdated stereotype.

“The presence of women in directorial roles is crucial for establishing positive role models, considering that women constitute a significant proportion of the film industry.

“Although there has been a shift towards inclusivity for female directors in recent years, these findings evidence that there is still a large disparity in opportunities available to women wanting to direct feature length films.”