In the last few years, we’ve seen more big budget and high profile TV shows and films being created, written and fronted by women. We had Celine Song’s beautiful Past Lives, Emma Seligman’s witty Bottoms, Nida Manzoor’s original Polite Society, Molly Manning’s brilliant debut How To Have Sex, and, of course, Greta Gerwig’s mammoth blockbuster Barbie. However, even though more women are working on projects behind the camera, the overall picture remains bleak.

According to the Celluloid Ceiling report, which has tracked women’s employment on the 250 top-grossing films for the last 25 years, women only comprised 24% of directors, writers, producers, editors and cinematographers working on the top grossing films in 2022.

Women comprised just 7% of cinematographers working on the top 250 grossing films of 2022, only up 3% from 1998. The number of female editors hasn’t improved much either, increasing from 20% in 1998 to 21% in 2022. And women didn’t fare much better in other roles, making up only 19% of writers, 25% of executive producers and 31% of producers in 2022.

To dive into it all and how female-led sets have the potential to change British (and global) TV and film for the better as well as how the industry has changed over the years, Stylist’s Shahed Ezaydi sat down with producer Sue Vertue and director Charlotte Brändström, who were also speaking at the inaugural Prime Video Presents Trailblazers.

Sue Vertue, producer

Beginning her career in 1991, Sue Vertue is a British producer and board director at Hartswood Films, best known for Sherlock, Mr Bean and The Vicar Of Dibley. She’s also the executive producer on The Devil’s Hour, from Prime Video, which is produced by Hartswood Films. And she’s the series producer for the multi-award winning hit drama Sherlock for BBC, co-created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss. “I love working on dramas that are naturally funny, even the ones that you may not typically view as funny – like Sherlock or The Devil’s Hour – but that still have a lightness to them.”

“There was a time when I was a production assistant working on a project and I met a line producer who I was really impressed by. I’d always wanted to meet him and when I told him I wanted to be doing what he was doing one day, he turned around and said that I should probably just stay at the level I was. It’s definitely a moment that’s stayed with me over the course of my career and I still experience imposter syndrome to this day.

But I do think the industry has changed since then. Most of the decision makers working at the top of the TV industry in the UK are women, including ITV, Channel 4, Apple TV+ and Prime Video. The problem at the moment is the middle ground of television. Women will get into TV and rise up to a certain point but because of many women wanting to have children and families, there’s a drop off point in the middle of the journey. And it can be difficult to leave and then try to re-enter the industry at the same or a higher level. So, there has to be changes made in that area to ensure women can progress in their careers whilst having families.”

Charlotte Brändström, director

Charlotte Brändström is a Swedish-French award-winning director and graduate of the directing programme at the American Film Institute. Most recently, Charlotte wrapped post-production as the executive producing director on Lord Of The Rings: Rings Of Power. Prior to this, Brändström has directed episodes across a range of acclaimed TV series, including The Consultant, The Witcher, The Man In The High Castle and Shogun.

“I started off working in film in France and moved around a lot, working in London then Sweden and eventually the US. By the time I got to America, it had gotten a bit easier for women to break into the industry. People were still thinking twice about hiring a woman but it was getting easier. It took a bit longer to get your break, paying your dues for longer, but at the same time, it’s a learning process and you get better at your craft. I don’t think I’ve faced huge obstacles because I’m a woman and I try to never question the fact that I’m a woman directing projects. I’m just a director in my mind.

I actually won a prize for one of my first features in Los Angeles at the Women in Film Festival. And I remember when I got the prize, they asked me to say something and I said, ‘I hope that one day I won’t win a prize because I’m a female director, but just because I’m a director.’”

Image: Prime Video