UCLA report: Hollywood diversity backslides in 2022

Representation of women and people of color in the film industry regressed in 2022 following three years of gains, even in the face of evidence that diverse movies fare better at the box office and attract bigger and more diverse audiences, according to a UCLA report released Thursday.

The UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report found that racial, ethnic and gender diversity among actors, directors and writers last year slipped back to 2019 levels.

According to the report, which examined Englishlanguage films among the top 200 theatrical releases and the top 100 Englishlanguage streaming films, found that people of color represented only 22% of lead actors in theatrical releases, just 17% of directors and 12% of writers. Women made up 39% of lead actors and 15% of directors.

Women did make some gains, representing 27% of movie writing positions, up from 17% in 2019, and 41% of overall acting roles, up from 40% in 2019, according to the report.

Streaming films tended to be more representative of the population overall, with people of color representing 23% of directing jobs, compared to just 17% in theatrical releases. But the report noted that streaming films tend to have smaller budgets, with 75% of the films directed by people of color having budgets of less than $20 million.

At 73%, white men continued to dominate the director’s chair for