Ruth Harley may or may not be reappointed as chief executive of Screen Australia but the agency is losing two senior executives. Head of production investment Ross Matthews and head of development Martha Coleman plan to step down.
Matthews joined Screen Australia as senior investment manager after spending eight years with its predecessor, the Film Finance Corporation. He’s held his current post since January 2009. In 30 years as a producer, co-producer and executive producer his credits include the films Kick, Fast Talking, Australian Dream, Waiting, Short Changed and Heatwave and the TV series Correlli.
Coleman worked in the UK for seven years as head of development at Icon Entertainment International, head of creative affairs at Material Entertainment and as a consultant producer. At Material Entertainment she was executive producer on the UK box office hit Run Fat Boy, Run, which starred Simon Pegg, Thandie Newton and Hank Azaria.
She returned to Australia in January 2009 to take up her current role. Coleman has told friends she intends to return to producing; in 1998 she produced director John Curran’s debut feature Praise, which starred Sacha Horler, Peter Fenton, Joel Edgerton and Marta Dusseldorp.
“Last July I told Ruth and the board I would be delighted to renew my contract until December 2013, but then I would move on to other things,” Martha told IF. “ It will have been five years by then, which is long enough for one person, and I'm incredibly proud of the excellent work my team has done in that time to support our filmmakers.”
Applications closed on April 26 for the CEO’s position, arguably the most powerful in the screen production industry, presiding over an organisation with 110 staff and an annual budget of $110 million.
Dr Harley, whose five-year term expires in November, told staff she would reapply. The board may make a decision as early as July, which has to be ratified by the Cabinet and Arts Minister Tony Burke. It’s believed that interviews will start shortly. The candidates may include Fiona Cameron, Screen Australia’s chief operating officer, Richard Harris, CEO of the South Australian Film Corp. and former head of the Australian Directors Guild, and Aussie-born New Zealand Film Commission CEO Graeme Mason, who has international experience with Manifesto, Polygram Filmed Entertainment and as president of worldwide acquisitions for Universal.
However the Opposition contends the Government should not make any senior appointments- including that of the top job at Screen Australia- before the September 14 election.
Last month Senator George Brandis, the shadow Arts Minister, told SBS Film the agency and the Labor Government should postpone a decision on the CEO until after the election. “The Opposition is of the view that, except in exceptional circumstances, no appointments or reappointments should be made to senior Government positions where such appointments would commence after the election,” he told this writer. “The Opposition reserves its right to reconsider all such appointments if it were to win the election.”
In addition, the Coalition is understood to be looking to review the system of federal screen funding, which may result in Screen Australia’s mandate being narrowed to supporting cultural projects.