\u201cWe get told the myth that we as female directors or diverse directors are competing against each other for a very small amount of jobs,\u201d said Pankiw, 39, who grew up outside of Edmonton, Canada, and now splits time between Los Angeles and Toronto. \u201cWe\u2019re actually not each other\u2019s competition. We need to make our piece of our pie as big as possible. And I think we\u2019ve got to help each other get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pankiw\u2019s efforts come as Hollywood has seen a further backslide in women\u2019s employment.<\/p>\n
As my colleague Meg James recently wrote, women made up just 13% of the directors working on the top 250 films last year<\/a>, down from 16% in 2024, according to a study from San Diego State.<\/p>\n That\u2019s even more sobering when you consider the bigger picture.<\/p>\n Martha Lauzen, the study\u2019s author and founder of the university\u2019s Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, has been tracking women\u2019s employment as directors on the top-grossing Hollywood films for 28 years. During that period, she said, there has been little improvement.<\/p>\n In 1998, women made up 9% of directors, compared with last year\u2019s 13%, marking a difference of just 4 percentage points in nearly three decades, she said.<\/p>\n Despite the success of such prominent directors and producers as Kathryn Bigelow, Ava DuVernay and Chloe Zhao, women remain vastly underrepresented behind the camera.<\/p>\n \u201cIn looking at the numbers, I can only surmise that the major film studios do not view women\u2019s underemployment as directors or in any of the other roles I track, including as editors, cinematographers, writers, or composers, as a problem,\u201d Lauzen wrote in an email. \u201cIf you don\u2019t view something like severe gender inequality to be problematic, you\u2019re not going to do anything significant to change it.\u201d<\/p>\n For a time, there was some momentum on this issue.<\/p>\n In 2015, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission started to investigate alleged gender discrimination in Hollywood<\/a>, after a request from the American Civil Liberties Union. But the review failed to get traction. Shortly after, President Trump came into office, and political attitudes toward the topic changed.<\/p>\n There was also a burst of promises in the wake of the #MeToo movement to improve gender parity in Hollywood.<\/p>\n One of the biggest and most resounding commitments was the industry-wide push to generate candidate lists that were 50% women. For a number of years, that seemed to be happening.<\/p>\n But as the industry faced an increasing number of headwinds, including the pandemic, the dual writers\u2019 and actors\u2019 strikes in 2023 and studio spending cutbacks, those efforts dwindled.<\/p>\n Then came Trump\u2019s call for the end of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which pushed some of these initiatives underground as companies became less vocal about DEI commitments.<\/p>\n The lagging percentage of women film directors last year is a clear sign that the industry is going backward, said Kirsten Schaffer, chief executive of WIF, which advocates for women in Hollywood. The group is supporting Pankiw\u2019s Breadcrumbs initiative along with talent agency WME. The agency, which represents Pankiw, also contributed seed funding to WIF for the program\u2019s infrastructure, as well as legal language for mentorship inclusion negotiations.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no lack of talent,\u201d Schaffer said. \u201cIt really is lack of opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s where Pankiw hopes Breadcrumbs can help.<\/p>\n Once a director, producer, studio or production company signs on to the pledge, they\u2019re given resources and contract language that helps normalize the inclusion of a paid mentorship on sets. (The mentees\u2019 pay is at least the rate of a production assistant.)<\/p>\n Directors currently signed onto the pledge can be matched with vetted options for potential mentees from Breadcrumbs\u2019 internal databases, developed with industry partnerships. <\/p>\n By showing them what these sets are like and how directors solve problems on the fly, Pankiw hopes mentees will be a little more fearless as they pursue their careers.<\/p>\n \u201cI really hope it helps instill confidence in the people that join these sets and shadow,\u201d said Pankiw, who has directed episodes of the Elle Fanning-led \u201cThe Great,\u201d sci-fi series \u201cBlack Mirror\u201d and the 2023 film \u201cI Used to Be Funny.\u201d \u201cNo one knows what they\u2019re doing as they take the next step in their career, as they try something new. Everyone is learning on each new set.\u201d<\/p>\n Stuff We WroteNumber of the week ![\"eight](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768920255_725_.png\")
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