Gravity, one of the most blockbuster films of the past year, stars Sandra Bullock, who fights to survive in a genre that normally overflows testosterone. The Hunger Games: The action film Cathching Fire has also reaped a great fortune in the lockers of San Sebastian. In it, Jennifer Lawrence has once again played the role of stoic archer and decision-maker of Katniss Everdeen, a fighter with a more dignified future in his hands. From the point of view of gender, films produced in the United States, the most viewed in the world and, therefore, those that have the greatest influence on the public, can give rise to an illusion closer to gender equality. But Hollywood is a specialist in creating illusion, in appearance, giving a thin but shiny coat of varnish of false progressism above well-rooted conservationism.

The New York Film Academy has not analyzed the content of films in its report Gender Inequality in Film, but has collected data from people working in the Hollywood film industry, both in front of and behind the camera. Specifically, the Hunger Games: The success of Catching Fire’s premiere prompted those in charge of this body to investigate whether U.S. women are making progress in the U.S. film industry.

The first focuses on female roles, based on the 500 Hollywood movies that have raised the most money between 2007 and 2012. Of all roles that have text, only 30.8% are for women. There are very few movies that have a similar percentage of men and women or more female roles, only one in ten. In the case of women who work as managers, the data on female roles increases little (10.6%), and less so when women write the script (8.7%). But even though they appear less on the screen, women "show" more; 26.2% of actresses appear "partially naked" according to the report, and only 9.4% of men undress at the request of the script. To complete the first part of the research, the New York Film Academy recalls that women and men go to movie theaters. In other words, these productions pay equal shares.

Data gets worse when you look across the cameras. In general, only one in six employees of the American film industry is a woman. The most “positive” data is that of documentary directors, with 34.5% of women. But most of the directors of the 250 films that had the most benefits in 2012 (91%) were men and, more seriously, the percentage has not changed since 1998. The number of female writers has risen by two points in the last 16 years, from 13% to 15%. That of the executive producers, on the other hand, falls by one point and remains at 17%. Percentages of producers and editors have not changed at all (25% and 20% respectively).

Different winners

To explain the wage gap, the industry's highest fees, the most starving actors in Hollywood, have been taken into account. The actress who earned the most money in 2013, Angelina jolie, won 33 million dollars, while actor Robert Downey Jr., won over 75 million dollars in an auction. Jolie is ranked number 9 on the top performers list, as is Denzel Washington. In total, the 10 most expensive male players received $465 million, compared to the 181 million women received, according to the Forbes list. In the list of the 16 heaviest checks received for one job there is no woman.

In addition to wage increases, actors and other film industry workers have the opportunity to opt for several awards. This report is based on the Oscar. In the 86 edition of the Academy Awards, only four women were nominated for awards. The list was opened in 1976 by the Italian Lina Wertmüller, with Seven Beauties as director of film and television. In 1994, director Jane Campion was nominated for The Piano and 10 years later Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation. Kathryn Bigelow, the last nominee and winner of the Oscar for the best director for The Hurt Locker in 2010, directed the film and worked as a producer. In all these years there have been seven women who have received the best production prize, but seven in co-production, that is, sharing the prize with male colleagues.

Last year, in the 85th edition of the Oscar, 140 men were nominated in 19 different categories. There were 35 women nominated. And you have to keep in mind that 10 of them were inexcusably nominated for the awards in the categories of best lead actress and best high school actress.

The list of nominees and winners of this year’s awards raises the hope that an actress is breaking the topic that there are no roles from a certain age. There are Meryl Streep (64), Emma Thompson (54), Sandra Bullock (49), Julia Roberts (46) or Cate Blanchett (44). But on the one hand, the photographs of these actors seem to have an average of 20 years less. And on the other hand, once again, data prevail over subjectivity: The average age of male players recognized as of the year 2000 is 44 years and that of women is 36 years. The difference is even greater if one takes into account the list of the most paid actors: the average age of the 10 men who earn the most money is 46.5 years, compared to 34.8 years of women.

Leading role in the skin

At the main events of this year’s Hollywood film awards ceremony, the conservative industry has been able to give the coating of varnish mentioned on the portal, above the harsh reality the data shows. Golden balloons have been presented by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. For the presentation of the Oscar, Ellen Degeneres has been chosen for the second time to cover the misogynist jokes launched last year by presenter Seth McFarlane. The three women, and the three over the age of 40. Degeneres, moreover, is lesbian, so they can shed two quotas with a single stone (it hurts that the Caucasian characteristics of the well-known presenter are very obvious).

But women are often the real protagonists before the awards are given. On the red carpet, they act like empty mannequins. A few weeks ago, before the PRACTICUM awards given by the US actors union, they interviewed Cate Blanchett on the red carpet, the most awarded in the last year. As with the rest of the actresses, the discarded camera started to draw from her feet a short and slow plane of her body, while one of the brightest theater and film actresses responded to the interviewer’s insubstantial questions: “Who designed the dress? Who are the shoes from? And the add-ons?” So, the Australian actor noticed the camera's trajectory and crouched, finding himself halfway with the device's eye. “Do you do the same to men?” he asked. The interviewer responded with a nervous smile.

According to the New York Film Academy, “after analyzing the data, it is clear that Hollywood is stuck in gender issues.” Because there's no reason to be optimistic about the major commercial industry today, they have hopes outside and in the future of Hollywood. On the one hand, the list of film directors presented at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival is an oasis in the desert of men: for the first time the percentage of directors exceeds 50%. But this festival usually shows independent North American films and foreign works that are then poorly disseminated. On the other hand, the report refers to women who can contribute a great deal in this industry in the future: Lake Bell, actor, producer, director and screenwriter from In a World; dee Rees, screenwriter and director of Pariah; Sarah Polley, actor and screenwriter and director of Stories We Tell; Jill Soloway, screenwriter and producer of the excellent Six Feet Under series.