Call for production funding quotas to get 50% of Australian films to be directed by women
The Australian Directors Guild (ADG) has called for quotas to be set on Screen Australia’s production funding in an attempt to boost the number of projects being directed by women.
The Australian Directors Guild is calling for more female directors.
The production industry association is urging that a quota of 50 per cent of funding be allocated to female director after research shows that over the last five years only 15 per cent projects were directed by women.
“The screen industry has been funded by the Federal Government for more than four decades for reasons of cultural representation, economic stimulus, and professional development and innovation,” said Ray Argall, president of the ADG.
Can we just get a increase in production funding for films made in Australia first and then worry about the gender equality later? Arguing about who makes what is relevant if there isn’t a film industry at all.
Quotas never work and penalises those who do have talent and skill.
With the little work there is, shouldn’t it be based on merit & skill rather than gender?
Did you GUYS even read the article?!
“For years I have been asked about the lack of numbers of women directors in film. My feeling has always been that it has to be based on merit. But the data from Screen Australia shows that the increase has only been about 6 per cent in 30 years. It is pretty obvious that the current system is not about merit – there is not a level playing field.”
And if you’d ever actually applied for funding you’d know how much work is involved – and if you believed there was a bias, would you go to that much effort, over and over again?!
You are SO far from contributing to the actual debate it is laughable.
Yay for quotas!
Let’s see – around a quarter of all Aussies are aged 18 and under. So let’s have a quarter of Aussie directors under 18 as well!
Nuff said.
The director being the most superfluous and least important member of the crew, presumably even a woman could do it ?
In the world of film making, there is no such thing as a “level playing field” and there is no such thing as a “system of merit.”
Nadia Tass, Ida Lupino, Joan Craft, Jane Campion and Kathryn Bigalow, to name a few from the top of my head, became film directors because they had the will and determination to do it, unlike one or two that I won’t name, they had the talent and the good luck to continue. Film making knows no boundaries of gender, education, politics, personality or race.
George Miller has a degree, Quentin Tarantino was a high school dropout, The other George Miller is a very nice guy, Mr X is an asshole. Fledgling Kishan Shrikanth is a young director, Brilliant Michael Haneke is old, Nadia Tass has a brilliant understanding of theatricality and the shape of dramatic composition, Mr X, Ms Y, and trans gender Z do not understand the basic rule of dramatic impetus. They are all, notwithstanding, successful film makers.
The notion of beginning and driving some scheme to make 50% Male and 50% Female directors of film a reality, is a lunatic ideal driven by non thinking PC and political claptrap. Why not 30% brown eyed, 30% Blue eyed and 30% green eyed directors with the balance reserved for gray and odd eyed directors.
Start making films and start building a real and a credible film industry, you will be pleasantly surprised to see women and men of all complexions, political persuasion, colour and race, happily making films side by side .