Gender-balanced hiring has dipped among IMDbPro’s list of the 100 most popular films of 2025.
ReFrame — the initiative launched by Sundance Institute and WIF (formerly known as Women in Film, Los Angeles) in partnership with IMDbPro as a way to advance gender equity — has released its latest report that examines hiring across key roles on those 100 films based on IMDbPro data. After analyzing the ranks, the organization awards ReFrame Stamps to signify a gender-balanced production.
Twenty-six films of the top 100 received a Stamp, a rollback of four films from 2024’s numbers. Also noteworthy is the dip in representation in other key roles like directors and lead performers. In 2023, there were 20 women and nonbinary directors with films in the top 100, followed by 14 in 2024, and 11 in 2025. Lead performers also saw a rollback with 51 women (including one transgender actor) represented in 2024, followed by 39 in 2025. Ethnic diversity also fell to its lowest number in eight years with seven women of color represented in lead roles for 2025.
“This report’s findings point to a significant divestment in women-led projects — creating a narrowing pipeline of opportunities for women and gender-diverse people across the industry,” said WIF CEO Kirsten Schaffer. “Collectively, we have the power to change that. By making intentional choices guided by the ReFrame Stamp criteria, those with hiring power have a clear path to building a more equitable industry, one production at a time.”
ReFrame’s founders Cathy Schulman & Keri Putnam added in a joint statement: “The ReFrame Stamp was designed as a stepping stone, with moderate measures for substantive inclusion of women, nonbinary and trans people in key roles in front of and behind the camera to qualify as gender-balanced. This was meant as a floor, not a ceiling, on our way to inclusive hiring. The fact that even this baseline remains a minority achievement is alarming. Instead of raising the bar, we’re now seeing productions falling below it. This is not progress. This is a reversal.”
The report found that on films with budgets north of $100 million, 26 percent of films received the Stamp for 2025, on par with the previous year’s findings. On the studio front, Netflix earned the ReFrame Stamp for at least 50 percent of its releases.
Notable films in the top 100 to earn the Stamp included Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt starring Julia Roberts, Len Wiseman’s actioner Ballerina starring Ana de Armas, Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love starring Jennifer Lawrence, the animated Elio, Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein’s Final Destination Bloodlines, Nisha Ganatra’s Freakier Friday, Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet starring Oscar winner Jessie Buckley, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s I Know What You Did Last Summer, Chris Appelhans and Maggie Kang’s KPop Demon Hunters, Dean Fleischer Camp’s Lilo & Stitch, Celine Song’s Materialists, Josh Boone’s Regretting You, Paul Feig’s The Housemaid, Victoria Mahoney’s The Old Guard 2, Jake Schreier’s Thunderbolts* and Jon M. Chu’s Wicked: For Good starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.
The full report can be found here.
