Abstract
Abstract The absence of equal opportunities on the basis of sex, age and nationality in the cultural and media industries acts as a hindrance to the creation of social and cultural value and has a negative impact on several well-being dimensions: work and career opportunities; work-life balance; training and development of talent; quality of interpersonal and social relations; but also on individual, subjective wellbeing, with possible consequences on individuals’ health. The premise of the E|Quality project is that a sustainable transformation of the industry is not possible unless strategies for change ensure the meaningful inclusion of marginalized groups, that is, one that assures both the increased presence of film professionals from historically excluded groups (HEGs), as well as the quality of their work conditions and personal development. This project aims to increase our understanding and knowledge of the mechanisms of exclusion that still operate in contemporary Italian film and TV series productions and to produce positive impacts on their capacity to adopt Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) parameters on three levels: offscreen, onscreen, and in-front-of the screen. This will be accomplished by creating a set of standards, guidelines, and assessment and self-assessment tools usable by different actors – such as production companies, film commissions, and policy-makers – to evaluate their ability to incorporate and actualize DEI parameters. The E|Quality project will focus on women, and especially women belonging to historically excluded groups (HEGs), in contemporary Italian film and tv series. The project adopts an intersectional approach, which understands interlocking power structures as having uneven effects on different identity categories. At the same time, we see this project as interpellated by what Lorber calls the new gender paradox: in order to eliminate gender inequality, we need to both dismantle the gender binary but also to insist on it when it is strategically functional in demonstrating inequalities. The project will develop along five milestones: 1) Evaluation and analysis of offscreen diversity and inclusion in contemporary Italian film and series production, with attention to the presence of women and especially women belonging to Historically Excluded Groups (HEGs), such as women without Italian nationality; 2) Evaluation and analysis of Italian cinema and TV’s capacity to promote the work and careers of women and especially women belonging to HEGs; 3) Mapping of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies and programs in Italian cinema and TV production cultures and practices; 4) Evaluation and analysis of onscreen diversity of Italian contemporary audiovisual works and their psychosocial impacts on audiences from HEGs; 5) Development of toolset for the improvement and strengthening of the culture of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Italian cinema and TV, also through the use of the digital leverage.
Results achieved
The E|Quality project completed all five milestones through thirteen actions carried out by its two operational units, the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (coordinating unit) and the Università di Bologna. The off-screen analysis produced the project's largest empirical results. For cinema, 6,763 Italian feature films (2000–2023) were examined through the Centric software, censusing 109,405 professional roles across ten key professions; for television, 522 series and 12,820 episodes were analysed, censusing 524,406 roles. In both domains the data document a marked and persistent gender imbalance, together with significant correlations between inclusivity and production variables (genre, budget, public funding, distribution). A four-tier weighting system was developed to assess not only the presence but also the seniority of the roles held by professionals from historically excluded groups (HEGs). Careers were investigated through both quantitative and qualitative methods: Social Sequence Analysis and Social Network Analysis mapped advancement patterns and transitions between creative and non-creative roles, while nine in-depth interviews with filmmakers of migrant background documented their working conditions, obstacles, and expectations. The on-screen dimension was measured through automated content analysis (the INA inaSpeechSegmenter and inaFaceAnalyzer tools, in collaboration with David Doukhan, Institut National de l'Audiovisuel), estimating women's screen presence, speaking time, age, and perceived ethnicity. A systematic review of DEI policies in the European audiovisual sector was complemented by a desk analysis of 95 Italian production companies (selected from 839) and by interviews with 22 associations representing people with disabilities, which assessed audience satisfaction with on-screen representation. Across all three levels — off-screen, on-screen, and in-front-of-screen — the findings indicate a persistent inclusion gap. The fifth milestone translated these results into operational instruments: data visualisations, a digitised self-assessment DEI tool based on Likert-scale indicators for producers and policy-makers, and the open-access Centric database (https://centric.unicatt.it/). The project also maintained a substantial public and institutional dimension. An agreement with the Ministry of Culture – Directorate-General for Cinema and Audiovisual led to the publication of the "Gender Balance in Italian Film Crews" reports (2024 and 2025) on the Ministry's gender-equality webpage, and to ongoing monitoring of production initiatives. Results were presented at the annual Seminar on Gender Equality and Inclusivity at the 81st and 82nd Venice International Film Festivals and at numerous national and international conferences (IULM, San Marino, Turin, eCampus, Link Campus, NECS Lisbon 2025, Bologna). Twelve meetings were held with national and international stakeholders — including the Creative Europe Desk, Eurimages, regional Film Commissions, and trade associations such as Women in Film, Television and Media – Italia — to refine the self-assessment tools. Scientific output comprises twenty papers submitted to peer-reviewed national and international journals (one already accepted by L'Avventura. International Journal of Italian Film and Media Landscapes, Il Mulino), the two Ministry reports, and a forthcoming open-access collective volume gathering the project's contributions. Owing to the long review and production cycles of leading international journals, some outputs reached publication after the project's formal conclusion: among them, the Bologna unit published the open-access article "Women Off-Screen: A Data-Driven Analysis of Gender Inequalities in Italian TV Serial Production (2000–2023)" (Iapalucci, Cattani, Pescatore) in Television & New Media (2026), one of the leading international journals in television and media studies.Dettagli del progetto
Responsabile scientifico: Guglielmo Pescatore
Strutture Unibo coinvolte:
Dipartimento delle Arti
Coordinatore:
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore(Italy)
Contributo totale Unibo: Euro (EUR) 114.830,00
Durata del progetto in mesi: 24
Data di inizio
30/11/2023
Data di fine:
29/11/2025
