The Australian Directors Guild has welcomed the announcement by Screen NSW CEO Courtney Gibson that the agency intends to moved to gender equity in its production and development finance by 2020.
“This is a great step forward for women filmmakers in NSW and it shows great leadership in the screen industry," said Gillian Armstrong, a member of the ADG Women in Film Action committee (WIFAC).
“We hope that Screen Australia and other state funding agencies will follow suit and aim to have the same gender equity in their production and development programs.”
WIFAC has been urging Screen Australia to introduce a 50 per cent quota for women in its film funding programs to fix a major gender imbalance for women directors. Only 17 per cent of films funded by Screen Australia in the last five years were directed by women.
Taking its lead from Sweden, which introduced a 50 per cent target on all its film funding, WIFAC believes a quota is the only effective way to fix this imbalance.
“We have been talking about equity for women in the film industry for the last 30 years. The recent figures show that all the good will in the world will not solve the problem, and that affirmative action needs to be taken by our film bodies to fix this imbalance," said Megan Simpson-Huberman, a WIFAC member. "Be it a quota or a target – what gets measured gets done."
ADG president Ray Argall, who recently returned from Europe where the issue of gender equity is generating a lot of discussion amongst film bodies, said: "Having balanced creative leadership in the making of our screen stories is a no brainer. To not use the full potential of our creative resources is a waste of the creative talents of our women directors, and we applaud Screen NSW for recognising this and taking decisive action."
The WIFAC comprises Armstrong, Samantha Lang, Argall, Anna Broinowski, Rebecca Barry, Simpson-Huberman and Michaela Ledwidge.