IMDb adds F-rating to feminist films

21,800 films have been tagged with an F-rating so far

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb), which sees more than 250 million visitors per month, has adopted the ‘F-rating’ system to signpost films that were directed by women, written by women and/or pass the Bechdel test.

It was invented by Bath Film Festival director Holly Tarquini in 2014 and has since been picked up by more than 40 cinemas and festivals across the UK.

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

21,800 films have been tagged with an F-rating so far, the criteria for which are as follows:

Any film which is either:

Directed by a woman

Written by a woman

Features significant women on screen in their own right

=Sasha Lane in the Andrea Arnold directed American Honey

Frozen, American Honey and Bridget Jones’ Baby have earned a ‘triple rating’ as they meet all three, while other F-rated films include Metropolis, Kung Fu Panda 2, The Girl on the Train, Freaky Friday, Animal Farm and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

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

"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."