The first socio-labour study on the profession, sponsored by DAMA and the Film Academy, reveals a deep gender gap: 85% of the profession are men and only 15% women
“People think that a film director is a rich person, because you appear on the red carpet in the couché role and they think that you have life already resolved.” The phrase belongs to the Minister of Culture Miquel Iceta, who yesterday participated in the presentation of the first study carried out in Spain on the social and labor situation of film directors.
LADY, the audiovisual media rights management entity chaired by Borja Cobeaga, and the Film Academy endorse this thorough report which, among other data, reveals how many directors (of films, series, commercials, documentaries…) there are in Spain: 638 At least, that they have worked in the last five years. And no, not all of them are rich, far from it.
How much does a director earn? According to the study signed by doctors Javier Carrillo, from the Rey Juan Carlos University, and José Antonio Gómez Yáñez, from Carlos III, the average income is 42,000 euros (gross) per year. Almost 30% receive less than 20,000 per year, however, while a privileged 15% exceeds 80,000 per year. The intermittence in work entails an irregularity in income that affects established and first-time filmmakers.
A good handful of directors attended the studio’s presentation at DAMA’s headquarters in Madrid: Enrique Urbizu, Pedro Olea, Fernando Colomo, Carlos Vermut… Benito Zambrano lamented a tax system that taxes the income obtained from directing a film, without taking into account He realizes that it may take five or six years to direct the next one. “This study had to be given to film students, because they all want to be directors,” joked the president of the Academy, Mariano Barroso. Only around a third enjoy job continuity by working practically a full year. A quarter of them are employed for a maximum of three months a year. Among the elite, only 12% of the profession directs more than two films within five years. 60% have to do other things to be able to eat, such as writing scripts, teaching, working in production…
Not affiliated with a political party
Two data are especially bloody in the report commissioned by DAMA and the Academy. Being a film director in Spain continues to be an eminently male profession, despite the boom in female directors who are successful at international festivals. The same day it hits theaters
‘Alcarras’, of Carla Simón, Golden Bear in Berlin, 85.2% of Spanish film directors are men and a measly 14.8% women. In series, the percentage is divided between 16.4% of female directors and 83.6% of men.
The director Félix Viscarret between Miki Esparbé and Ana Polvorosa on the set in Bilbao of ‘A Not So Simple Life’. /
“The gender gap is brutal,” says Borja Cobeaga, who will finish his term as president of DAMA in June. «There is also a salary gap, the directors earn less (24%). They are not commissioned with large-budget projects, hopefully this will change. In always very masculine sectors, such as cinematography and special effects, it is already changing thanks to the ICAA policies».
The other big gap the report reveals is generational. In Spain, Ridley Scott (84 years old) and Clint Eastwood (91) would have a hard time working. The busiest directors among us are between 35 and 54 years old. From 55 onwards, only 25% of men and 6% of women make films. Filmmakers over 65 years of age found 3%. “A director who is 60 years old is perhaps in the best moment of his career,” says Cobeaga, who has not shot for three years. “It’s not that he’s a bad streak of mine, it’s that it’s natural.”
“I haven’t shot for three years, it’s not a bad streak of mine, but what’s natural”
Borja Cobeaga
President of LADY
The platforms generate a lot of work, although the boom in series and movies for Netflix, HBO Max or Amazon Prime Video has not translated into more stability: only 12% of film directors also shoot series. Another problem detected is that these platforms sign their productions with their seal to the detriment of the director’s authorship. “On the posters of ‘Fe de ETA’ it put ‘a Netflix movie’, nowhere did my name or that of the actors appear,” recalls its author. «Then it seemed normal to me, they were starting, but today I see that the directors are ignored, that we begin to look at that anonymity with mistrust». And one last fact in the ‘politicized’ Spanish cinema: there is not one director affiliated with a political party and only 4% are affiliated with a union. “We are snipers, each one goes to his own ball,” Cobeaga justifies.
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