The F-Rating is a rating to highlight women on screen and behind the camera. Developed at

Bath Film Festival Bath Film Festival, known as FilmBath, is a film festival established in 1991, in Bath, England, by members of the Bath Film Society. The organisation has expanded in duration, venues, and titles. In 1997, it was registered as a non profit-distr ...

in 2014, the F-Rating was inspired by the

Bechdel Test The Bechdel test ( ) is a measure of the representation of women in film (and, by extension, in fiction in general). The test asks whether a film features at least two women talking to each other about something other than a man. The measure som ...

based on a 1985 cartoon strip by

Alison Bechdel Alison Bechdel ( ; born September 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist. Originally known for the long-running comic strip ''Dykes to Watch Out For'', she came to critical and commercial success in 2006 with her graphic memoir ''Fun Home'', which ...

, and popularised in the 2010s by Anita Sarkeesian's Feminist Frequency blog, and by Ellen Tejle's A-rating in Swedish cinemas. In response to criticisms of the A-rating, Swedish film theorists Ingrid Ryberg, Anu Koivunen and Laura Horak wrote, "The A rating has proved to be an activist provocation that works, and it is important to ask why... The A rating is not about classifying films as feminist or not feminist. It aims to alert viewers who find female sociality compelling to films they might like, and so challenge the industry to make more such films." The festival developed the F-Rating in October 2014 "to take it a step further and highlight films which either had a senior figure in production who was female—a director or a screenwriter—or had very strong female leads or women's issues," according to festival director and F-Rating founder Holly Tarquini. Tarquini told the

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that films had to meet at least one of three criteria to receive the rating: "If our films have a female director, a female lead who is not simply there to support the male lead, or are specifically about women then they will receive an F-rated stamp of approval." In 2016, the F-rated founder, Holly Tarquini was invited to deliver a TED talk at TEDxYouth@Bath.

Rationale

The F-Rating is a reaction to a phenomenon known as the

celluloid ceiling The celluloid ceiling is a metaphor for the underrepresentation of women in hiring and employment in Hollywood. The term is a play on the metaphor of the "glass ceiling", which describes an invisible barrier that keeps a given demographic (typicall ...

, which has been documented internationally. "

BFI The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

figures showed that in 2011, 15% of all UK films released were directed by women, but in 2012, this went down to 7.8%.", while a study by "the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University found females made up 15 per cent of protagonists, 29 per cent of major characters and 30 per cent of all speaking characters in the 100 top-grossing films of 2013."

Bath Film Festival 2014: first implementation

Seventeen of the forty-two films received the F-Rating, included the First World War drama

Testament of Youth ''Testament of Youth'' is the first instalment, covering 1900–1925, in the memoir of Vera Brittain (1893–1970). It was published in 1933. Brittain's memoir continues with ''Testament of Experience'', published in 1957, and encompassing th ...

, based on Vera Brittain’s memoir, and director Jean-Marc Vallée's true-life tale Wild, starring Reese Witherspoon. Women's magazines Marie Claire and Elle both gave positive coverage to the rating and programme, which were also mentioned in UK Culture Minister Ed Vaizey's weekly bulletin.

Subsequent implementation

In February 2015, the Bath Comedy Festival announced that it would be the UK's first F-rated comedy festival, with performers including

Viv Groskop Viv Groskop (born 8 July 1973) is a British journalist, writer and comedian. She has written for publications including ''The Guardian'', ''Evening Standard'', ''The Observer'', ''Daily Mail'', ''Mail on Sunday'' and ''Red'' magazine. She writes ...

and

Helen Lederer Helen Margaret Lederer (born 24 September 1954) is an English comedian, writer and actress who emerged as part of the alternative comedy boom at the beginning of the 1980s. Among her television credits are the BBC2 sketch series ''Naked Video'' ...

. In March 2015, Komedia Bath arranged a meeting to encourage all Bath festivals, including the

Bath Festival of Children's Literature The Bath Children's Literature Festival (also known as Bath Kids' Lit Fest) is an annual book festival held in Bath, Somerset aimed at children's books. The festival features a variety of authors, poets, illustrators and storytellers. It typicall ...

and

Bath International Music Festival The Bath International Music Festival was held late each spring in Bath, South West England between 1948 and 2016. The festival included many genres such as Jazz, Classical, World and Folk and merged with the Bath Literature Festival in 2017 to ...

, and arts organisations to make

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

the first F-rated city. The 2015 Bath Film Festival programme was 45% F-rated, and attracted more attention. In 2015, all the independent cinemas and film festivals in the UK were invited to join the F-Rating with dozens signing up to F-rated their programme. In 2016, The Barbican became the 40th organisation to adopt the rating.

F-rated keyword added to IMDb

In January 2017, the F-rated keyword was added to

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

. By March 2017, there were over 22,400 films on IMDb tagged with the F-rated keyword. The rating was defended by GQ Magazine.

References

External links

Official website for the Bath Film Festival

Official website for the F-rating

Official website for the A-rate