The 2016 AACTA nominations were announced last week to the usual gamut of responses ranging from delight to disappointment and dismay. This year the absence of women nominees in a number of categories has been especially singled out for attention.
Bunya Productions is hosting a genre masterclass program in December for mid-career female writers and directors who have compelling ideas for genre TV series or features.
The Australian Cinematographers Society’s A Wider Lens report, which examines career pathways into cinematography, and the workplace and recruitment experiences of camera professionals, paints a picture of inequality, discrimination and a lack of diversity. It recommends an "industrial scale" effort to address a toxic work culture, finding many workplace conditions, as well as commonplace bullying, harassment and discrimination, are resulting in significant mental health consequences, to the point of threatening the industry's long-term sustainability and growth.
Filmmaker Samantha Dinning has joined Philippa Campey’s Film Camp as creative producer, working across a slate of feature, TV, documentary and VR projects.
With Create NSW’s ‘50:50 by 2020’ gender equity target now at a halfway point, the New South Wales Government has announced a $100,000 development initiative to increase the number of women directing TV drama.
Screen Australia’s Gender Matters initiative is not tackling the male dominance of the film production industry, according to Professor Deb Verhoeven, who proposes a radical solution: deny funding to men who don’t employ women in their creative teams.
"If you look at what the Gender Matters funding has done for female film filmmakers, that has not trickled down to those who work below-the-line."
The percentage of female feature film producers in Australia is already well above the global average and continuing to improve.