Has Digital Transformation Impacted Gender Imbalance in Italian cinema? A data analysis of creative clusters 2004-2016

The post-cinema context, ushered in by the pervasive digitisation of production and consumption of audio-visual materials, carried a promise of increased diversity in the production sphere due to lower entry barriers. This chapter examines the gender dimension of this promise, investigating the role of women in the production of 3542 films which applied for state funding between 2004 and 2016. Within this sample, 1270 works are further analysed in their full creative network, examining the gender and connections of all involved cast and crews. We apply a big-data approach combining an analysis of distribution with social network analysis; furthermore, a new metric called gd-score is introduced to measure with greater accuracy the power distribution in the industry. The results show that women maintain a peripheral role in the Italian cinema industry, as their incidence in power positions appears inversely proportional to a projects' budget and prestige. Moreover, women’s professional networks appear structurally weaker than those of their male counterparts. Overall, stronger institutional interventions is necessary to overcome what appears as a structural imbalance in the Italian cinema industry.