One-third of features films approved for support by France’s National Cinema Centre (CNC) in 2022 had a women at the helm for the first time in history, according to figures released by the body this week.

The figures were collated by the CNC’s Gender Equality Observatory created in 2014 to monitor the presence of women across the film industry. The data is drawn from information provided for French-initiated films (FIF) approved by the CNC as being eligible for its different support schemes.

According to the report, 69 of the 208 FIF films approved last year were directed or co-directed by women, representing 33.2% of all the approved films.

This not does not represent an historic high in terms of the number of female-directed films, because in 2021 there were 265 FIF films, amid a spike in production following the Covid-19 hiatus, among which 81 films were directed or co-directed by women.

It was the first time, however, that films directed or co-directed by women had accounted for more than a third of the approved films, and compares with 30.4% in 2021 and 26.4% in 2013

Female directors have tended to be more present in the documentary sector in the past, but there was a breakthrough for fiction features in 2022.

Out of the 159 FIF films approved in 2022, 54 were directed or co-directed by women, for a percentage of 34% of the total, against 28% in 2021.

The study revealed that the average budget for female-directed films had edged up to $4.0 million (3.7 million euros) across all genres.  

This remained 20% lower than the average budget for male-directed films which stood at $5.0 million (4.7 million euros) but was an improvement on last year when there was a 43% gap.

The study said there were three female-directed fiction films with budgets in excess of 10 million euros ($10.8m): Maïwenn’s historic love story Jeanne du Barry ($22.4m), Reem Kherici’s feature animation Chien Et Chat ($21m) and Géraldine Danon’s sailing drama Flo ($14.9m).

The last time this happened was in 2015 when there were four films directed by women with budgets higher than 10 million euros.

Digging into the budgets for fiction features, the observatory said the average budget for female-directed works stood at $5.0 million (4.46 million euros), which was 16.2% below the average budget for male-directed features.

The study noted, however, that the gap widened to 30.8% for second films.

“Even if this figure should be treated with caution due to the drop in second films in 2022, it still shows the more difficult access for female directors to bigger budget productions for their second film,” read the report.

The study added that not a single second film directed by women had a budget in excess of $7.6 million, (seven million euros) in 2022, while six second films by male directors had exceeded that budget, notably Thomas Cailley’s $16.3 million production La Regne Animal.

Over the last decade, only four second films directed by women had budgets over $7.6 million: Eloïse Lang’s Dumped, Julia Ducournau’s Titane, Dorothée Sabbagh’s L’Ex De Ma Vie and Deniz Gamze Erguven’s Kings.

This is compared with 39 male-directed second films with budgets over $7.6 million in the same period.

The French film industry has a complex record on gender equality.

Female directors were shut out of nominations for the 2022 edition of France’s national César film awards, while directors such as Claire Denis, Audrey Diwan and Alice Diop have enjoyed a high profile on the international festival circuit over the last 18 months.

The CNC has led the way in trying to encourage structural change in the industry as the first national film institution to introduce bonus funding for productions hiring women in key crew positions.

Elsewhere, the country’s gender equality group Le Collectif 50/50, created in 2018 in the wake of the MeToo scandal, has also played its part in bringing about change at home and internationally.

The body was a driving force behind the film festival charter launched at Cannes in 2018, encouraging parity on selection committees and greater transparency around the gender data related to the films submitted and then selected.  

Contacted by Deadline for comment on the report, Le Collectif 50/50 welcomed the fact that female-directed films had passed the one third mark but cautioned that there was still much to be done for the French film industry to achieve gender parity.

“The budget gap has gone down this year, but this is after increasing at an alarming rate in the past five years, so it remains to be seen whether 2022 was an exception,” said Le Collectif 50/50 board member Quentin Deleau Latournerie.

He added that the big challenge for female directors remained building careers beyond a first or second feature and then gaining access to bigger budgets as they advanced, in the same way as their male counterparts. 

These concerns were borne out in historic data from 2003 to 2022. During that period, 628 women made at least one film, against 1,832 men. 

However, 66.4% of the women made just one film, against 62.7% for men, and when it came to making multiple films, just 22 women, or 3.5% of the total, had made at least five films, against 138 men. 

Anne Fontaine was the only woman to have made more than 10 films in the period, with 12 directorial credits, while 13 men had made at least 10 films over the same time, topped by François Ozon, with 15 credits.

“It’s encouraging that the figures have improved but it’s important that the institutions and film industry understand that there is still a lot to be done to reach parity,” said Deleau Latournerie.