Shoppers, viewers and industry insiders are watching as a new report finds Hollywood’s top films still lag on diversity, who’s seen, who’s heard and who’s hired. The USC Annenberg study shows women, LGBTQ people, disabled characters and people of colour remain underrepresented in the 100 biggest movies of 2025, and that hiring is central to change.

Essential Takeaways

  • Women on screen: Only about one‑third of speaking characters were female, a figure little changed since 2007 and down from 2024’s gains.
  • Women behind the camera: Directors and screenwriters remain male‑dominated; women made up roughly 8% of directors and 16% of credited writers.
  • LGBTQ and disability visibility: Fewer than 1% of speaking characters were LGBTQ and just 2.8% had a disability, numbers far below population rates.
  • Racial gaps persist: Overall racial representation barely hit parity; Black and Hispanic/Latino characters were often missing, and women of colour are especially rare in lead roles and key hiring positions.
  • Fix proposed: The report urges inclusion targets and new hiring practices, not token gestures, if films are to mirror real life.

Opening hook: The numbers feel familiar, and a little flat

If you flick between the summer blockbusters and the awards contenders you may notice a familiar hush where diversity should be louder, and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative’s 2025 report confirms that gut feeling. The study looked at the 100 top‑grossing U.S. films and tallied every named or speaking role, then checked who was sitting in director’s chairs and writer’s rooms. The result is a picture that, for many, will feel like Groundhog Day, progress on paper one year, backsliding the next.

That sensory shift, rows of similar faces, similar stories, matters because movies shape cultural expectations. The report’s authors argue the solution isn’t happenstance casting but deliberate hiring practices, which would change who’s invited into the room and therefore who appears on screen.

Why women lost ground after a hopeful year

Last year’s uptick in female leads looked promising, but 2025 pulled the handbrake. Women accounted for roughly a third of speaking roles and only 38 of the top 100 films had a female lead or co‑lead. Dig deeper and the scarcity sharpens: just 15 of those female leads were women from marginalised racial groups and only three were over 45.

According to industry tracking, those counts haven’t shifted meaningfully since 2007, and that lack of forward motion says more about hiring and development pipelines than audience appetite. For viewers choosing films, it’s a reminder to look beyond headline grosses and seek out titles where women drive the story; for buyers and commissioners, it’s a call to insist on inclusion clauses early in development.

Behind the camera: the bottleneck that explains what we see

Representation on screen is tightly linked to who’s making decisions off screen, and the report shows women, especially women of colour, are vastly under‑represented in directing, writing, composing and casting roles. Women made up around 8% of directors and only about 16% of credited screenwriters; women composers rose from zero in 2007 to under 9% in 2025, but that’s still a sliver.

Casting director demographics are telling: white women dominate those roles while women of colour are rare, which helps explain why many films have no Black or Latino characters at all. The practical takeaway is obvious: hiring policies and gatekeeper diversity affect the finished film. Studios and producers who want different outcomes should measure who they hire, set targets and report results.

LGBTQ and disability representation: present but minimal

The report’s findings on LGBTQ and disabled characters are stark. Fewer than 1% of speaking characters were coded LGBTQ, with no trans characters appearing among the year’s top films, while just 2.8% of characters had a disability. Both figures sit well below population estimates, and when these characters do appear they’re more likely to be white men and rarely shown in caregiving or parental roles.

This narrow depiction flattens lived experience and denies nuance. For creatives and commissioners, the practical step is to allow writers the space to craft complex LGBTQ and disabled characters and to involve creators who have those lived experiences. For audiences, seeking out independent films and streaming titles that centre underrepresented voices can broaden the on‑screen diet.

Small progress in animation and comedy, but mixed genre signals

Not every category was static. Animation and comedy recorded modest improvements, suggesting genre can be a lever for inclusion when it’s prioritised. Still, many top films, across genres, had no Black characters at all, and nearly half of the most popular movies lacked Hispanic/Latino representation.

Trends like these suggest studios could use targeted strategies by genre to boost representation: greenlight animated features with diverse creator teams, commission comedies from writers of colour, and monitor outcomes. It’s a practical way to test what works without wholesale disruption.

What the report recommends and what that might look like

The Annenberg team pushes a labour‑focused remedy: change hiring practices rather than relying on incidental diversity. That means explicit inclusion goals, transparent reporting, and opening opportunities to new voices in writers’ rooms, director rosters and casting offices. The authors are blunt that the industry’s usual playbook yields the same results, and they frame the present moment, amid debates over DEI, as precisely the time to try different tactics.

For studios, producers and funders, that looks like contractual inclusion targets, mentorship pipelines, and accountability measures. For audiences and critics, it means demanding not just better stories but better practices that create them.

It's a small change in hiring that could make every screen feel more like real life.

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