Minorities in 21st-century Spanish cinema. Observations based on a character content analysis

Abstract

This research study analyzes the representation of minorities, diversity and gender in Spanish cinema of the 21st century based on a content analysis carried out on 129 films and more than 3,000 characters. To carry out this analysis, we used a previously validated code book focused on evaluating gender, sexual orientation, age, nationality and functional diversity. The data prove that characters belonging to minority groups are underrepresented and that there is a higher percentage of male than female characters. Minority characters, however, tend to have a slightly higher narrative weight. These observations differ according to the gender of the person who has directed the film and the release date, with women directors and more recent works tending to give more weight to non-majority characters.