Income

More than three-quarters of total film agency income between 1994/95 and 2007/08 came from government appropriations, the rest from such sources as recoupment of investments and interest.

• Federal film agencies: average of $162.81 million total income per year
• State film agencies: average of $42.21 million total income per year

Government appropriations increased over the survey period.

• Federal film agencies: up from $104.54 million (1994/95) to $173.75 million (2007/08)
• State film agencies: up from $18.92 million (1994/95) to $55.48 million (2007/08)

Expenditure

Since 1994/95, federal and state film agencies have spent a combined total of around $2.85 billion supporting Australia’s audiovisual industry. On average, this equates to $203.87 million per year. Federal film agencies contributed 80.4 per cent to overall expenditure over the 14-year period, whilst state and territory film agencies contributed another 19.6 per cent.

The top five categories of expenditure were (annual averages):

Federal film agencies:

• Production (57 per cent; $93.4 million per year)
• Archival activities (12.7 per cent; $20.75 million per year)
• Training and professional development (11.2 per cent; $18.43 million per year)
• Project development (2.2 per cent; $3.59 million per year)
• Screen culture (1.9 per cent; $3.15 million per year)

State film agencies:

• Production (35 per cent; $14.02 million per year)
• Project development (12 per cent; $4.82 million per year)
• Screen culture (6.8 per cent: $2.7 million per year)
• Production attraction (5.7 per cent; $2.3 million per year) – although this rises to 9 per cent or $3.58 million per year when combined with location promotion
• Training and professional development (4.9 per cent; $1.94 million per year)

Production expenditure

Federal film agencies accounted for the majority of production expenditure (86.9 per cent since 1994/95). Most production expenditure was for feature films and TV drama, followed by documentaries.

Features:

• 38.2 per cent of federal film agency production expenditure
  (average $35.65 million per year)
• 34.7 per cent of state film agency production expenditure
  (average $4.87 million per year).

TV drama:

• 36.3 per cent of federal film agency production expenditure
  (average $33.92 million per year)
• 31.8 per cent of state film agency production expenditure
  (average $4.46 million per year).

Documentaries:

• 19.5 per cent of federal film agency production expenditure
  (average $18.18 million per year)
• 18.7 per cent of state film agency production expenditure
  (average $2.62 million per year).

Note: these figures include funding for shorts production by any federal or state agency and all Australian Film Commission production funding which had been allocated to professional development in previous reports.

Development expenditure

State film agencies have accounted for a higher proportion of project development (including script development and general slate development) than the federal agencies since 1994/95 (57.3 per cent as opposed to 42.7 per cent); however, federal agencies have increased their expenditure in this area significantly above the 14-year average since 2004/05.

• Federal film agencies: average of $3.59 million annually
  (2.2 per cent of total federal expenditure)
• State film agencies: average of $4.82 million annually
  (12 per cent of total state expenditure)

Feature films accounted for the highest proportion of project development expenditure (34.6 per cent of combined state and federal expenditure).

Features:

• 32.4 per cent of federal film agency spending on project development
  (average $1.16 million per year)
• 36.2 per cent of state film agency spending on project development
  (average $1.74 million per year)

TV drama:

• 9.2 per cent of federal film agency project development
  (average $0.33 million per year)
• 12.9 per cent of state film agency project development
  (average $0.62 million per year)