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.
Screenwriter Liz Doran has written for 'The Secret Life of Us', 'McLeod's Daughters', 'Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries', 'Dance Academy' and 'Please Like Me'. She speaks to Jackie Keast about Gender Matters and upcoming projects.
Screen Australia has received 452 applications - the most applications ever received for any funding program - for Brilliant Stories and Brilliant Careers, the two programs announced last December under the Gender Matters initiative.
Netflix is signalling a bigger commitment to commissioning Australian productions by hiring Que Minh Luu as director, local originals for Australia.
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.
“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."
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.
Watching the 2015 Melbourne Cup, Rachel Griffiths didn’t initially know there was a female jockey in the race.