Hollywood films rarely reflect the climate change crisis. These researchers want to change that

But most of the films did not achieve the desired success, as less than 10% of the 250 films succeeded, and climate change was mentioned in two or more scenes in less than 4% of the films. This is a far cry from movie audiences who want to “see their reality reflected on the screen,” said Matthew Schneider Myerson, a professor of English at Colby College and the study’s lead researcher.

“The bottom line is that the vast majority of films, popular films made over the past 10 years in the United States, do not depict the world as it is,” Schneider-Myerson said. “They depict a world that is now history or fiction – a world in which climate change does not happen.”

Researchers at Maine Colby College published the study in April in collaboration with Good Energy, a Los Angeles-based environmental consulting firm. The results have been peer-reviewed, and the authors aim to publish them in scientific journals. The researchers view the test as a way for audience members, writers and filmmakers to evaluate the representation of climate change on screen.

Some results were surprising. Films that at first glance don’t seem to have much to do with climate or environment pass the test. Marriage Story, director Noah Baumbach’s 2019 emotional drama about the breakdown of a relationship, passed the test in part because Adam Driver’s character is described as “energy-conscious,” Schneider-Myerson said.

The 2022 film “Glass Onion” and the 2019 folk horror film “Midsommar” were among the other films that passed the test. Some films that were more explicitly about climate change were also approved, such as the 2021 satire Don’t Look Up. But San Andreas, a 2015 film about the West Coast earthquake disaster, and The Meg, a 2018 action film set in the ocean, were also approved. They didn’t do that.

The authors narrowed the selection of films by excluding films that were not set on Earth, before 2006, or after 2100. They found that streaming services had a higher percentage of films that included climate change than major studios.

Harry Weiner, director of sustainability at the Kanbar Film and Television Institute at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, said the study is “valuable for marketing purposes, informational purposes, and data collection.” It could also help serve as a catalyst to connect audiences to climate stories, said Weiner, who was not involved in the study.

“The public will be more open to hearing a dialogue about what is right and what is wrong,” Weiner said. “It’s a conversation starter.”

The study’s authors said they view the climate reality check as a Bechdel-Wallace test for climate change. Bechdel, a cartoonist, is credited with popularizing the test in the 1980s by incorporating her friend Liz Wallace’s test on the representation of gender in film into a comic strip. The test asks whether the film includes at least two female characters having a conversation about something other than a man.

Bechdel herself praised the study’s climate testing, which she called “long overdue,” in a social media post during this year’s Oscars season. “Ignoring this existential threat for a film set in the present just doesn’t make sense anymore” in the age of climate change, Bechdel said in an email to The Associated Press.

“I worry that screenwriters might do it in a perfunctory way, which might backfire, just like strong female characters,” Bechdel said. “But injecting awareness of our collective plight into the stories we absorb seems like a no-brainer.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Credit: AP