IMDb adopts the 'F-rating' for female positive movies

IMDb has adopted the use of the ‘F-rating’ for movies, highlighting films which feature notably positive female stories, and movies made by female directors or written by female writers.

Col Needham, founder and CEO of the massive online database, said: “The F-Rating is a great way to highlight women on screen and behind the camera.”

To achieve an ‘F-rating’, a film must have been either directed by a woman, written by a woman, or ‘show significant women on screen in their own right and pass the Bechdel test.’

The Bechdel test was coined by the US cartoonist Alison Bechdel, who determined that a film is deemed sufficiently female-leaning if it features ‘at least two women or girls who talk to each other about something other than a man or boy’.

It might not seem much to ask, but only around half of films manage this.

The ‘F-rating’ was first coined at the Bath Film Festival in 2014, by its director Holly Tarquini, and has now been adopted by 40 other cinemas nationwide.

21,800 films on IMDb have already been tagged with the rating, among them recent movies like ‘American Honey’, ‘Bridget Jones’s Baby’, ‘Frozen’ and ‘The Girl on the Train’, alongside classics like ‘Metropolis’ and ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’.

“The F-Rating is intended to make people talk about the representation of women on and off screen,” said Tarquini.

“It’s exciting when new organisations decide to join us in shining a light both on the brilliant work women are doing in film and on how far the film industry lags behind most other industries, when it comes to providing equal opportunities to women.

“But our real goal is to reach the stage when the F-Rating is redundant because 50% of the stories we see on screen are told by and about film’s unfairly under-represented half of the population – women.”

In recent years, just over 6% of movies have been made by women, according to the Directors Guild of America.

And while there’s still something of a mountain to climb, steps are being taken in the right direction.

Fox has been running its Fox Global Directors Initiative since 2014, awarding fellowships to 20 new female directors every year.

Meanwhile the National Film and Television School saw Bond franchise head Barbara Broccoli chairing its annual fundraising gala last summer to increase the number of female directors working in the industries by providing mentorships, workshops and internships.

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