: Women over 50 make up only about 25.3% of characters in their age bracket on screen.

A generation of established performers is successfully defying the industry's historical "death knell" for women over 40:

In the evolving landscape of cinema, mature women are increasingly reclaiming their space, moving from marginalized "background furniture" to powerful leading roles that challenge long-standing industry ageism. This shift, often described as a "midlife renaissance," is reshaping how narratives around female aging, authority, and agency are told on screen. The Landscape of Representation