Krish S's Senior Project Blog

Project Title: Gender Bias in the Film Industry (by looking at film reviews) BASIS Advisor: Ms. Ainslie Internship Location: Remote Onsite Mentor: N/A

Project Abstract

 Gender bias in the film industry has been widely discussed, particularly in terms of disparities in hiring and pay. Previous research has primarily focused on quantitative gaps, such as the underrepresentation of female directors and actors in major films. While these studies highlight systematic inequalities, they do not necessarily portray the subtle ways in which gender bias may be embedded in the media. Film critics, who play a big role in shaping industry narratives and public perception, may contribute to this bias through the language they use to evaluate males and females. However, research on gender bias in film criticism has been limited, and existing studies have relied on qualitative assessments rather than computational techniques. Additionally, no other study has evaluated the trends of gender bias in film criticism and how it may vary from year to year. This paper addresses the possibility of gender bias in film criticism and the trends of it through a unique lens: analyzing how major film critics evaluate the best male actor versus the best female actor for a given year using sentiment analysis. I analyzed film reviews from The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal between 2005 and 2024, assigning sentiment scores to reviews of Best Actor and Best Actress winners before awards were announced. I then compared the sentiment differences between the male and female winners across two decades to assess whether critics consistently portray them in a biased manner. That led me to determine how the variation of sentiment differences between male and female actors have evolved over the last two decades (2005-2024). The objective of this paper was to determine whether film criticism reinforces gendered expectations by portraying male and female actors differently. If significant sentiment disparities exist, it would suggest that reviews are shaped by hidden biases rather than just the actor’s performance. Thus, the findings of this study have the potential to inform broader discussions on media representation and contribute to efforts aimed at addressing gender bias in film criticism.