29 07 2016 Gender Matters: Final stages revealed
Screen Australia CEO Graeme Mason overnight unveiled the final two steps of the agency's Gender Matters program, Better Deals and Attachments for Women, at the MIFF 37 South Market in Melbourne. Gender Matters is the $5 million plan to ensure that production funding is targeted to creative teams that are at least 50% female by the end of 2018. Gender Matters is an ambitious initiative that aims to address the gender imbalance in Australia's screen sector.
NEW PROGRAMS
Better Deals is a $1 million pilot program that will create a new incentive for distributors considering quality female-driven feature film projects. Screen Australia will match the distributor's minimum guarantee of $100,000 or more (up to $300,000), which will be provided as a grant contribution towards the marketing of the film. This will give producers greater negotiating power to secure better deals with distributors, and encourage positive collaboration between the producer and distributor. Better Deals is open to all projects that satisfy the Three Tick Test' (female writer, director, producer and/or protagonist), and is not limited to those that have received Screen Australia production investment.
Attachments for Women is a program run in conjunction with the existing Production Investment Programs. It requires that all scripted drama projects that receive more than $500,000 from Screen Australia to have a compulsory, paid female attachment position built into the budget. This $1 million scheme will provide valuable production experience for women who want to break into long-form storytelling, extend their production experience or take the next step in their career either as creatives or crew. Participating projects will receive up to $20,000 to cover wages and other costs of the position, including supplementing childcare, travel or other suitable expenses as agreed to by the company and the attachment. This is to encourage producers to look outside of capital cities for potential attachments.
Better Deals and Attachments for Women mark the final steps of the Gender Matters program which began in December 2015 with immediate changes to Screen Australia's Assessment Criteria. This was complemented by the announcement of the 58 successful recipients of Brilliant Stories (45) and Brilliant Careers (13) earlier this month. The successful teams will share in more than $3 million in funding for story development or business infrastructure.
Mr Mason said that the latest additions to the suite of Gender Matters programs made sound commercial, ethical and cultural sense. We are seeking to address issues in opportunity, marketplace support, access to experience and credits for talented women. This is about creating opportunities, and removing the false perception that female films are more risky. These are interventions that focus on women at the supply and also the commercial distribution end of the value chain.
Screen Australia COO Fiona Cameron said: We think that Gender Matters is the circuit-breaking scheme that we need to make a real change in this industry. Gender Matters is a world first, providing opportunities to bridge the divide between education and occupation. A greater female perspective behind and in front of the camera provides balance, diversity and commercial sense.
Applications for Better Deals open on Friday 29 July 2016. Attachments for Women has been a compulsory addition to Screen Australia's Production Investment Programs since June 2016.
FURTHER INFORMATION
For further information about Better Deals and Attachments for Women please see the Brochure and Backgrounder.
For information about the successful recipients for Brilliant Careers and Brilliant Stories, visit the Gender Matters hub.
To read the report that launched the initiative, see Gender Matters: Women in the Australian Screen Industry Report (Dec 2015)
Follow the conversation on Twitter: @ScreenAustralia and #GenderMatters.
Media enquiries
Tamara Zimet
02 8113 5800 0405 185 699 tamara.zimet@screenaustralia.gov.au
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29 07 2016 Gender Matters: Final stages revealed 
