HOLLYWOOD tapped a record number of women to call the shots on major movies in 2020, according to a new study from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.

Women represented 16 percent of directors working on the 100 highest-grossing films in 2020, a high-water mark for female representation behind the camera. That’s up from 12 percent in 2019 and a lowly 4 percent in 2018, and a sign that the pressure on studios to promote more female filmmakers may be resulting in tangible change.

Of course, this was a year like no other, one that saw the theatrical business brought to a virtual standstill for months due to coronavirus. That also meant that some of the biggest budgeted films boasting female filmmakers, such as Chloe Zhao’s “The Eternals” and Cate Shortland’s “Black Widow,” had their releases pushed into 2021. Zhao did helm the Oscar hopeful “Nomadland,” while other female filmmakers such as Cathy Yan (“Birds of Prey”) and Patty Jenkins (“Wonder Woman 1984”) oversaw some of the year’s highest-profile releases.

The study, which has been issued for two decades and is overseen by the center’s director Dr. Martha Lauzen, attempted to account for the disruptions in the exhibition business. For the first time, the study also tracked women’s employment on films included on the Digital Entertainment Group’s “Watched at Home Top 20 Chart” from March through December 2020.

Women made up 19 percent of all directors, writers, executive producers, producers, editors, and cinematographers working on the “watched at home” films, which was slightly lower than the 21 percent achieved on the top grossing films.

Just under 10 percent of directors working on the watched at home films were women, down from 16 percent of the filmmakers on the top box office hits.

(SD-Agencies)