“We’re pleased with the review”: SPAA
The president of the Screen Producers Association of Australia, Antony Ginnane, says the industry body is “pleased” with the review of the independent screen production sector, but they don’t expect any additional direct financing in the upcoming budget.
“We’re pleased to see that, on many issues, the review doesn’t take a position one way or another. It gives us an opportunity now to engage on an ongoing basis with the Department, but given the state of the world, Australia and the budget, it would be unrealistic for the industry to expect any significant additional direct financing in the upcoming budget,” Ginnane told Encore.
“We’re pleased that Minister Simon Crean and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet have provided us with a current Polaroid of the state of the industry; it’s good to have a compendium of up-to-date information that gives us a sense into their feeling on a number of key issues, such as the Producer/Distributor Fund versus additional funding for Screen Australia in the medium-budget sector, the threshold of the Producer Offset, the Ausfilm-driven push for the Location/PDV offsets to be increased, or the possibility of making the television offset equivalent to the 40 percent for feature films.”
According to Ginnane, some of the “big issues” were left open, although other SPAA recommendations – such as the Producer Offset certification process being moved to the Department – have effectively been closed.
