After nearly 20 years of tracking representation metrics, the latest report from Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative reveals that Hollywood’s film industry has not made lasting progress towards inclusion.
“While we’ve seen pockets of progress for women on screen, the pace of change has been slow. Year after year, many of the same patterns remain,” Dr. Smith said in a statement about the study. “Incremental improvement is important for achieving meaningful transformation, but after nearly 2 decades of research and advocacy from many groups, it is clear that the industry is content to wait for change to find them rather than pursuing solutions.”
Smith’s statement accompanies the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative’s annual report, titled “Inequality in 1,900 Popular Films,” which examines representation and inclusion metrics for the 100 top-grossing films of 2025. The study evaluates representation on camera (based on gender, race/ethnicity, the LGBTQ+ community and people with disabilities) and behind the scenes (the gender and race/ethnicity of directors, writers, producers, composers and casting directors), adding to a dataset that began in 2007.
Some key takeaways from the study include that, despite comprising just over 50% of the U.S. population, in 2025, just 33.6% of all speaking or named characters were women and girls. Remarkably, that figure hasn’t changed much in 19 years (29.9% in 2007). In terms of lead or co-lead roles, women and girls have seen progress (38 films in 2025 compared to 20 in 2007), but the figure dipped from the 19-year high of 55 lead/co-lead roles in 2024. Of those 38 films, 15 had a female lead/co-lead from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group, and 3 had a female lead/co-lead 45 years of age or older. Only 4 nonbinary speaking or named characters were coded across the sample.
