Antony I Ginnane steps down from SPAA

Veteran producer Antony I. Ginnane will not stand for re-election as President of the Screen Producers Association of Australia for 2011-2012.

Ginnane has been president since 2008, in which time he led the charge to see the Producer Offset for feature films halved to $500,000 to re-invigorate the low budget sector, and with Ausfilm worked to enhance the Location and PDV Incentives.

In a statement, Ginnane said “There has been ‘a tradition’ at SPAA that the President does not stand for office for more than three years; and in the spirit of that tradition and given my long and public support for the continued rotation of film bureaucrats and others to ensure new blood circulates and policies are refreshed I have decided not to run again for President this year.”

Ginnane has keenly promoted SPAA’s Producer Distributor Film Fund (PDFF) proposal to provide a smooth caeer path for producers to move from $5 million films to mid-range $7-$30 million sector in Australia. The PDFF is also aimed to increase attendance of Australian audiences in cinemas for Australian theatrical releases.