In Britain women still represent only 20 percent of film directors; in India the rate of key creative positions held by women is 10 percent. In both countries, most women operate in a large, informal, undocumented segment of the film industry, within which employment is precarious, visibility and opportunities very limited, wages lower than for men, and basic work rights non-existent.
Corporate streaming platforms claim to promote women's access to the industry, but these claims remain unsubstantiated. There is no systematic study of the impact of streamers on women’s access to creative roles, or the percentage of films by women in streamers’ libraries.
Existing research on women in cinema is limited to statistics, but numbers hardly tell the full story.
Women Online investigates women’s position as creatives in cinema, and the impact of streamers on it, by asking the women themselves. Not numbers, but women’s voices and perspectives on their marginalisation and their strategies against it.
Through interviews, networking events and workshops, Women Online asks: What can Indian and British women in a range of creative roles and at various stages in their film career learn from each other?
What are the context-specific difficulties women face when seeking
to be film-makers in industrial configurations that, while profoundly different, are increasingly shaped by streaming companies?
How can we use women’s unique perspectives to create truly equal opportunities in the film industry?
What would be the government policies, educational criteria, legal frameworks and industrial practices that will enhance access to creative roles and improve working conditions for women in cinema?
Project Years 1-3
Anonymised interviews with 40 women, 20 in India, 20 in Britain.
Roles covered: director, producer, editor, cinematographer, screenwriter, sound designer, composer.
From diverse social, ethnic and religious backgrounds, from early and mid-career to established creatives.
1st networking event, hosted by Nunnery Gallery (Bow Arts) and Close-Up Cinema, London.
Held over 3 days in December 2025: 5 women working in the Indian film industry meet 5 women working in cinema in Britain.
Events’ workshops led by independent filmmakers Charlotte Ginsborg (Damselfish Productions) and Prachee Bajania. Accompanying public screening curated by Tessa Garland as part of Visions in the Nunnery Biennial.
Early 2026: lead researchers and partnering independent film-makers visit 4 film schools, two public and two private, in India and Britain.
2nd networking event, held at University of Kerala and hosted by the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC, Kerala).
The same 10 women meet a year later over 3 days.
Second series of event’s workshops led by Prachee Bajania and Charlotte Ginsborg. Accompanying public screening curated by Bina Paul
Lead researchers disseminate project's results through conference talks, public lectures and publications.
Professor in Digital Arts
Dr Valentina Vitali is a film historian and theorist based at Birmingham City University. Her research explores the intersection of economics, history and film aesthetics from a comparative perspective. Publications include essays and book chapters on Hindi film, women’s cinema and Indian visual culture, and the books Capital and Popular Cinema (MUP), Hindi Action Cinema (OUP), and Theorising National Cinema (BFI, co-edited with Paul Willemen). Valentina set up and led the AHRC-funded South Asian Cinema and VOD Research Network, has edited a special issue of BioScope on South Asian contemporary women’s cinema, and curated, among other screenings, Contemporary South Asian Films by Women (FACT, Liverpool), Alia Syed: Recent Works (Whitechapel Gallery, London), and Award-winning Docs from Myanmar (Close-Up Cinema, London).
Dean, Faculty of Arts, Senior Professor, Institute of English, University of Kerala
Dr Meena Pillai is a scholar whose work lies at the intersection of Women’s Studies and Cultural Studies, with a particular focus on Indian cinema and popular culture. Her research explores the representation of women in film, the cultural politics of Kerala’s modernity, and the impact of new media on gender cultures. She is the editor of the first volume on women in Malayalam cinema and has published widely in journals and edited collections on these topics. Meena believes in extending academic insights to a wider audience through contributions to newspapers and public discussions. She has held prestigious fellowships including a Fulbright at Ohio State University, a Shastri at Concordia University, and a Commonwealth at the University of Sussex, and was a Fulbright Visiting Professor at UCLA.
