Daily Times

Women and minorities have made modest gains in Hollywood in the past year but they remain underrepresented in the industry compared with their share of the population, according to a report released on Thursday.

The annual “Hollywood Diversity Report” — published by the University of California Los Angeles — examined 200 films released in 2017 and 1,316 television shows that aired or streamed during the 2016-17 season. It also examined the hiring of women and minorities, both on screen and behind the camera, in 12 job categories, including lead roles, directing and writing. “Behind the scenes and in front of the camera, advances for people of color and women remain fairly incremental, if not stubbornly static,” the report’s authors said in a statement.

The study, released ahead of the Oscars this Sunday, found that films with more diverse casts — such as the hit movies “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Black Panther” — fared better at the box office.

But it also said that although the number of minority actors with lead roles in films had increased from 13.9 percent to 19.8 percent in 2017, that still did not represent that group’s share of the overall population, which is about 40 percent minority.

Published in Daily Times, February 23^rd 2019.