Back to All News
Netflix and Bus Stop Films Partner to Increase Representation on Australian Production Sets
Social Impact
03 December 2023
GlobalAustralia
Link copied to clipboard
Australia is home to world-class talent, both on and off screen, and its crucial that we contribute to building a strong future for our local industry.
We've partnered with Bus Stop Films, an organisation whose core mission is to make films with, for and about people from diverse backgrounds and abilities, to support their 2023 Showcase - a national tour featuring eighteen short films inclusively made by 180 filmmakers with mild/moderate intellectual disability or autism, produced through Bus Stop Films' Accessible Film Studies Program. Netflix is also supporting the placement of a paid intern, to be selected and supported in partnership with Bus Stop Films, as an attachment on an upcoming Netflix production in Australia.
We spoke with Bus Stop Films' CEO Tracey Corbin-Matchett OAM on the importance of inclusive filmmaking and creating opportunities that ensure our industry is sustainable - and accessible - for many years to come.
Tell us a bit about your journey and what led you to Bus Stop Films.
Well it's been an amazing journey on the bus! I actually got my start in TV almost 20 years ago when my hubby was the straight guy, in the pilot for the Aussie version of Queer Eye For a Straight Guy and I fell in love with this amazing sector. I am a total policy geek and I was working at Screen NSW in stakeholder engagement and industry development managing their strategies such as She Shoots to support women in camera and sound, and Screenability which was then a new strategy to support more people with disabilities into work in film and TV. One of my colleagues told me about Bus Stop Films and their amazing work, so I connected with the co-founder Genevieve Clay-Smith for Screenability. I am always making friends, so after moving on from Screen NSW I picked up Bus Stop Films as a client of my small business, a communications company . And that part time gig led to becoming the CEO of the best company ever!
How have you drawn from your own personal experiences to inform the work you do at Bus Stop Films?
I have been actively involved in the disability community for many years as my daughter is Deaf and I am hard of hearing. As a social worker I worked in community programs and policy in social housing and domestic violence service before moving into film and TV. I have an innate passion for seeing the world be a fairer and more kind place and through my personal and professional experiences I have an understanding of the perspective of people with disabilities and how fairer policy and programs can benefit marginalised groups. This helps me to deliver on the key aspects of our work in education, creativity, advocacy and employment.
Bus Stop Films' 2023 Showcase is the biggest yet. How do you see the tour impacting the communities you represent?
The tour will re-frame how they feel about disability and bring such pride to our participants and their local communities who worked on the films. Our Launceston program is just 3 amazing young people with disabilities and they have made this awesome film called Ron's Creek, starring Rhys Muldoon about a small town grappling with bad internet. It's hilariously funny and so very Tasmanian. We shot it in a tiny town called Lilydale, about 30 minutes from Launceston and it is brilliant. The class are so proud of their film, and they should be, the film will show them, their families and their community their creativity, skill and humour. And after the showcase, the films will be entered into festivals around the world, taking their message of advocacy with them.
How do attachment programs - like the one Netflix is supporting - benefit the industry?
They will not only offer paid employment to a person with disabilities, which means income, capacity building and networking, they will also build confidence in the cast and crew they work with to feel more at ease in working alongside or employing people with disability. Our industry is very much an industry about relationships and who you know, and getting a foot in the door is tough. For a person with disabilities, even with great skills and knowledge it is hard to access the networks to tap into work. Attachment programs help break down barriers and build up the confidence and industry experience of the individual, which helps them gain future employment. It's a win-win.
What other opportunities do you hope to create with Bus Stop Films?
We are excited to be in final development of our first ever feature film, Baby Cat,which will be a fully inclusively made production, and feature an amazing actor with Down syndrome, Olivia Hargroder, in the lead role. Advocacy is also a critical part of our work, so were thrilled to announce were hosting the first ever summit to explore disability employment in film, TV and commercial production. The event will be held at Bondi Beach in late 2024, and will bring together practitioners, commissioners and policy makers from the disability, film, TV, commercial advertising, broadcast and production sectors to explore, elevate and celebrate the employment of people with disability across the screen industry, on both sides of the camera and above and below the line. And because we like to dream big at the bus we hope to take our work all the way to Hollywood, changing lives and minds all the way to LA!
Netflix recognises the importance of diverse and inclusive representation on and off screen. As pioneers of streaming, we are proud to have made entertainment more accessible than before and know that there is more to be done. Netflix is committed to delivering more inclusive and accessible entertainment to the world including our diverse
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it's given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what ...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
With John Daro, DI Colourist at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm
Restar Corporation
Tokyo
Register here
John Daro is the ...
12/06/2026
Meet The Grumpy Onion Ireland's newest online sensation, all he wants is to ...
12/06/2026
RT stays Up All Night with brand new daily 2026 FIFA World Cup Vodcast
Adding to the fun around 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament, RT has launched a brand new d...
Back to All News
