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Screen Australia's $5 Million 'Gender Matters' Plan To Get More Women Writing, Directing And Producing Australian Film

Leading Ladies: $5 Million Plan To Get More Women Producing Aussie Films

The gender imbalance in Australian film and television is set to be corrected with $5 million worth of grants and initiatives by Screen Australia.

The Gender Matters campaign is backed by the likes of Love Child actor Miranda Tapsell, The Beautiful Lie producer Imogen Banks and the Australian Directors Guild president Samantha Lang.

At present the proportion of women in leadership roles in the industry is 32 percent of producers, 23 percent of writers and 16 percent of directors.

Chief executive Graeme Mason said they were working towards a 50/50 balance but recognised there was a long way to go.

“Our focus is on female led creative teams rather than individuals," Mason said in a statement.

"We are aiming to ensure our production funding is targeted to creative teams -- writer, producer, director and protagonist -- that are at least 50 percent female by 2018 year end.

"While across all our funding programs we exceed this target, production funding in film at 29 percent is well off the pace.”

The Dressmaker producer Sue Maslin said the project's core was simple.

"My vision for the future is a world where stories about women, told by women, are equally of interest to all audiences," Maslin said. "Gender Matters will help make this happen."

The Gender Matters campaign kicks off with $3 million worth of ‘jump start’ funding to get female-led projects production-ready within two years.

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