Kristina Sams | On 04, Jan 2016

Women in the Australian Film Industry rejoice!

Screen Australia has recently announced their new $5 million Gender Matters initiatives, a five point plan for the screen industry that is to be implemented over the next three years.

Specifically targeting gender imbalance within the industry, the initiatives include increasing storytelling by women, creating industry infrastructure around women, providing production experience for women, enhancing distribution and marketing of Australian films with female content and encouraging projects that promote gender and cultural diversity.

Statistics reported by Screen Australia within the traditional film sector indicate that only 32% of women work as producers, 23% as writers and 16% as directors. Gender Matters aims to remove barriers women may face in the workplace.

The statistics show that women tend to feature more in project development for film, television and documentaries with the numbers falling for actual production contribution. For Graeme Mason, CEO of Screen Australia, the focus for Gender Matters is “on female led creative teams… to ensure our production funding is targeted to creative teams that are at least 50% female by 2018.”

 

 

2015 has been a milestone year for Australian film with box office results surpassing the all-time record of $63.4 million set in 2001. So now is the time for filmmakers to start pitching their ideas and for people to get inspired. Funding will be split to ‘jump start’ female-led projects and support industry networking.

The Gender Matters Taskforce includes some of Australia’s most influential filmmakers such as Deputy Chair of Screen Australia Deanne Weir, producer Imogen Banks (The Beautiful Lie; 2015, Offspring; 2010-), producer Sue Maslin (The Dressmaker; 2015), actress Miranda Tapsell (The Sapphires; 2012, Love Child; 2014-) and YouTube favourite Natalie Tran.

Film is a collaborative process and with a film industry that relies heavily on government funding it is ground-breaking to see such support and witness the re-defining of a more inclusive ‘Australian voice’.

Image Credits: Screen Australia