Older Women Still Underrepresented in Leading Film Roles, New Research Finds
New analysis from the Centre for Ageing Better’s Age Without Limits campaign highlights the continued underrepresentation of older women in leading film roles, despite growing public demand for more diverse stories on screen.
Looking at the 100 highest-grossing films released across 2023, 2024 and 2025, the research found that only five featured a woman aged over 60 as the lead character. By comparison, six films starred a lead actor named Chris, while films were reportedly four times more likely to feature a talking animal as the central character than a woman over 60.
The findings have sparked renewed calls for greater representation of older women in the film industry. According to polling commissioned by Age Without Limits, one-third (33%) of people believe there are not enough films featuring women over 60 in leading roles. Among women surveyed, this figure rises to 39%.
Award-winning actor Dame Emma Thompson has backed the campaign’s call for change, saying:
“Women are half the population and we get older. So where are the stories about us? The older we get, the more interesting we are. I want to see more films centre ageing women, we are compelling, relatable, and overdue for centre stage. Older women don’t need permission to exist on screen. They already exist in the world, cinema just needs to catch up.”
The campaign argues that the lack of representation does not reflect audience demographics. Research cited by the Centre for Ageing Better notes that adults aged 55 and over make up a significant proportion of cinema-goers in the UK and contribute hundreds of millions of pounds in annual cinema spending.
Dr Carole Easton OBE, Chief Executive of the Centre for Ageing Better, described the findings as evidence of a broader pattern of ageism and sexism across society. She said:
“It is absolutely ludicrous to think so few films have been made in recent years that have an older woman at the front and centre.”
She added that older women are frequently “minimised, marginalised and ignored” across media, employment and public life, and called for greater representation of all stages of life in the stories people consume.
The latest analysis builds on the Centre for Ageing Better’s 2023 Cast Aside report, which examined more than 1,200 speaking characters across nearly 50 popular films released between 2010 and 2022. The study found that only one in three speaking characters were aged 50 or over, despite this age group representing almost half of the UK’s adult population.
Researchers also found that women aged 65 and over were more than three times less likely than men of the same age to appear in British films. Older female characters were often portrayed as passive or peripheral to the main storyline, while active and fully developed portrayals remained relatively rare.
The Age Without Limits campaign argues that increasing visibility of older women in film is an important step in challenging ageist attitudes and ensuring that audiences see a broader range of experiences reflected on screen.
The findings also echo themes explored in our member magazine The Pensioner, where journalist Mark Fisher examined how older people are portrayed in film and television. His article asks whether today’s screen characters challenge ageist assumptions or simply replace one stereotype with another. Read Do onscreen roles reinforce or undermine popular images of older people? to explore how ageing is represented on screen and why authentic portrayals matter.
Source: Centre for Ageing Better, Age Without Limits campaign analysis of top-grossing UK films (2023–2025) and Cast Aside research (2023).
“This article is based on research and polling published by the Centre for Ageing Better as part of its Age Without Limits campaign. Original research available via the Centre for Ageing Better.”
