LGBTQ film content fell in 2017: study
Despite high-profile Oscar wins for art house films like Call Me by Your Name and A Fantastic Women, LGBTQ representation in films from the seven biggest Hollywood studios fell significantly in 2017 says a study released this week by the advocacy organization GLAAD.
GLAAD said in its sixth annual report that of the 109 major releases surveyed from 2017, 12.8 per cent included LGBTQ characters, down from 18.4 per cent the previous year. None of the major films had a transgender character either, although there was an increase in the racial diversity of LGBTQ characters after two years of decline.
Individually, none of the studios received higher than the “insufficient” rating given to 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures. Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures and Walt Disney Studios all received “poor” ratings, and both Lionsgate and Warner Bros. got “failing” grades.
As usual, independent and art house releases included more LGBTQ characters. Of the 40 films released by Focus Features, Fox Searchlight, Roadside Attractions and Sony Pictures Classics, which distributed both Call Me by Your Name and A Fantastic Woman, 28 per cent were LGBTQ -inclusive, up from 17 per cent in 2016.
The report says Hollywood is at a tipping point with both #TimesUp and #MeToo movements and the huge box office successes of films like Black Panther and Wonder Woman.
“Inclusion is good for the bottom line,” said GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis.
“It is time for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) stories to be included in this conversation and in this movement.”
GLAAD is calling on the industry to commit to hitting a target of 20 per cent of major releases including LGBTQ characters by 2021, and 50 per cent by 2024.
It is also making a plea to studios to integrate LGBTQ characters more directly into the plot and not to leave a character’s queer identity to subtext or interpretation, as was the case with Power Rangers.
GLAAD notes that 2018 is off to a more promising start with releases like Fox’s Love, Simon, Paramount’s Annihilation and Universal’s Blockers, all of which played on thousands of screens in North America and “included central queer characters who have agency over their own stories.”