[October 06, 2015]

LUNAFEST® Study Reveals Many Female Filmmakers' Careers Begin and End with Short Films

LUNAFEST®, a national fundraising film festival that showcases short films by, for, and about women, celebrates its 15^th year of supporting female filmmakers with a new study executed in partnership with Stacy L. Smith, Ph.D., and USC Annenberg's Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative.

"LUNAFEST has featured a unique group of female filmmakers over the last 15 years that provided a compelling group for us to study," said Dr. Stacy L. Smith of USC Annenberg. "Looking to the challenges these filmmakers face after graduating from short filmmaking to independent or mainstream fare sheds light on the importance of finding ways for female filmmakers to share their stories."

The study, "Gender & Short Films: Emerging Female Filmmakers and the Barriers Surrounding Their Careers," examined the independent film landscape and the group of LUNAFEST female filmmakers since the festival's beginning. The study found that women comprise only 32 percent of directors of short and mid-length films overall at 10 worldwide festivals. In comparison, women directed 18 percent of independent feature films at one festival across 13 years, and just four percent of top-grossing Hollywood movies in the same time frame.

"We started LUNAFEST 15 years ago to address the gender disparity in filmmaking," said Suzy Starke German, LUNAFEST Program Manager. "Yet, in the broader film industry today, the challenges for women in film still remain. By working with Dr. Smith's team at USC, we're trying to understand what we can do as a film festival to continue to be a strong ally to female filmmakers and help elevate the incredible work they are producing."

One outcome of limited career opportunities for women may be skewed representation on screen. Top findings that showcase LUNAFEST's dedicaion to providing a platform for women on-and-off the screen include:

• LUNAFEST directors amplify the number of women on screen. Across 115 LUNAFEST short films, a total of 63 percent of the 744 speaking or named characters evaluated were female and only 37 percent were male. Nearly 81 percent depicted a female lead/co-lead driving the plot. These findings are in stark contrast to the 100 top films of 2014, where 28 percent of speaking or named characters were female and only 21 percent of leads or co-leads featured a girl or woman.
• LUNAFEST filmmakers lead to more diversity of character race/ethnicity. Of the 715 characters that could be evaluated in LUNAFEST shorts, 38 percent were from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups. A full 37 percent of the short films' leads or co-leads were from an underrepresented racial/ethnic group. This deviates from mainstream content, as nearly 27 percent of characters and 17 percent of leads or co-leads in the 100 top films of 2014 were from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups.

"The study provides further evidence that when we have diversity behind the camera, on-screen depictions better approximate the diversity we see around us off-screen," said Smith. "The Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative at USC Annenberg and the LUNAFEST team are inspired by the work of these filmmakers and our hope is that all of these women garner the audience they deserve, and the caliber of their work is recognized by a broader, more mainstream audience."

LUNAFEST's goal since its inception has been to generate interest and excitement for content created by women, whose voices and vision are largely absent from mainstream cinema. To date, the film festival has received over 10,000 short film submissions, worked with over 100 female directors, and had female-directed films viewed by more than 300,000 people across the U.S.

"The results from this study reveal why supporting female filmmakers and their work is one step toward changing the landscape in media," said Starke German. "We are proud that LUNA and LUNAFEST are committed to being by, for, and about women every year."

For more information on this year's LUNAFEST season, and to find out about upcoming screening locations, please visit, www.lunafest.org. To read the larger findings, please visit the study.

About LUNA®

LUNA® nourishes women with delicious snacks. LUNA connects, supports and champions women with programs such as LUNAFEST®, a national traveling fundraising festival of short films by, for, and about women, and Team LUNA Chix, an all-women's sport group inspiring women to learn new sports and be active. LUNA proudly donates one percent of its sales to a variety of women's nonprofits and the Breast Cancer Fund through the Clif Bar Family Foundation. (www.lunabar.com)

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