Breaking the ‘celluloid ceiling’ Project name Culture-Biz Project duration 30/12/2003 – 29/03/2005 Country Germany International partners - Finnekvit, Finland - MEDIACULT, Austria - Observatorio das Actividades Culturais, Portugal - Zentrum für Kulturforschung, Germany EU subsidy EUR 323 583 Total costs EUR 407 089 Name of the coordinating organisation European Institute for Comparative Cultural Research (ERICarts) Contact name Prof. Dr. Andreas Wiesand Address Dahlmannstr. 26 53113 Bonn Germany Telephone +49 (0)228 2420997 Fax +49 (0)228 241318 E-mail wiesand@ericarts.org Websites www.ericarts.org www.kulturforschung.de www.oac.pt www.mdw.ac.at/mediacult/ www.finnekvit.org www.gender-research.net
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As women try to climb the ranks of the culture sector, the constraints of the ‘celluloid ceiling’ loom ever closer. A case in point: only 3% of Europe’s top grossing films from 1996-2003 were directed by women, according to the European Institute for Comparative Cultural Research (ERICarts). As a result the Culture-Biz project set out to examine the opportunities that exist – or not – for women to take on decision-making roles within film production and book publishing. As part of a series of three studies investigating how diversity can be achieved within Europe’s cultural industries through equality, the Culture-Biz project compares the status of women in large, medium and small-sized film production and fiction book publishing companies. The project, lead by ERICarts in partnership with Finnekvit (Helsinki), MEDIACULT (Vienna), Observatorio das Actividades Culturais (Lisbon) and the Zentrum für Kulturforschung (Bonn), explores the potential for women to take on decisionmaking roles at different stages of the production and distribution processes. The sector and country-specific observations and recommendations resulting from the project is of particular interest to private companies, national broadcasting organisations, professionals working on both the business and creative sides of the industry, professional associations, university professors and students. Documenting the situation Information and data from existing relevant studies were collected and analysed in order to enable project partner research teams to paint a clearer picture of the structural changes and developments within the sector across Europe, and the subsequent effect that