"Each creative team is to imagine the episode is like an open letter to their 12-year-old self that explores the hopes, the dreams, the challenges, the hardships and the belly laughs that drive today’s girls," the ABC said in a statement.
The Gender Matters-backed project is a collaboration between Bell and producer Imogen Banks which aims to mentor young female writers through the process of developing a TV series to network pitch.
“What I am really interested in now is international efforts. I’m very excited about coming to New Zealand to participate in the [Power of Inclusion] summit because what we need to do is create an international coalition of women filmmakers and work in solidarity to unify our efforts."
Having hit its initial Gender Matters target, Screen Australia has set a new KPI: by 2021-22, it hopes that 50 per cent of key creatives across all projects that receive development and production funding are women.
Screen Australia has announced the 18 members of the new iteration of the Gender Matters Taskforce, which provides independent advice to the agency, and works beyond Screen Australia’s direct sphere of influence to deliver outcomes for female creatives and assist in broader industry efforts to achieve gender parity.
Chief operating officer Fiona Cameron will depart Screen Australia later this year to become a full-time member of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
The ABC is launching a cadetship scheme to encourage women to enter the film and television industry as part of its support for International Women’s Day and the #PressforProgress campaign.
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.