The EC supports the CharactHER gender promotion initiative | New

The European Commission has launched a new awareness campaign aimed at encouraging women to enter traditionally male-dominated film professions such as cinematography, sound and handling.

The CharactHER initiative was led by French activist for gender equality Delphyne Besse, one of the founding members of the French pioneer organization Le Collectif 50/50.

It revolves around 12 video portraits of women who have forged successful careers in traditionally male-dominated sectors of the film industry. Among them, Greek cinematographer Olympia Mytilinaiou, Belgian showrunner Marie Enthoven, Romanian director and host Anca Damian, Danish stuntwoman Anne Rasmussen, Italian VFX supervisor Gaia Bussolati, French composer Uèle Lamore, Austrian colorist Susi Dollnig and the German key Maike Maier.

“The hope is that these portraits and career paths of the professionals presented could encourage more women to take on similar roles,” Besse explained. “Even if a lot of work has been done to improve gender equality in the industry in the wake of #MeToo, there are a lot of film professions where women remain rare, even in France where we have the impression that things are going much better.

Figures provided by the European Film Academy analyzing the gender distribution of its members by profession showed that women only represented 7% of sound technician positions, 10% of music-related roles, 11% of music roles. VFX supervision, 38% of movie roles. assembly and 8% of unspecified technician roles in total.

However, women dominated in hairstyling and makeup (74%), casting (82%) and costume (87%).