Gender Matters Results 2022/23
Screen Australia is pleased to share its Gender Matters results for 2022/23.
The following data provides valuable insights into Screen Australia’s efforts to address the underutilisation of female talent in key creative roles (writers, producers and directors) in the Australian screen industry.
Screen Australia’s 2022/23 Gender Matters KPI is an extension of the 2021/22 goal – to have at least 50% of the key creative roles across all projects receiving Screen Australia development and production funding occupied by women, across a three-year average.
This year Screen Australia has met the target of the 2022/23 Gender Matters KPI, revealing 55% of key creative roles across approved development and production funding were women, across the three-year reporting period (2020/21-2022/23).
TV/VOD drama development and production, documentary development, feature drama development, and online drama development and production delivered strong representation, while feature drama production and documentary production are areas of focus.
Screen Australia’s Head of Content Grainne Brunsdon said, “Screen Australia’s commitment to gender parity is reflected in the continued gains in the successful applications by female creatives to the agency. These results are a valuable reminder that ongoing engagement with the industry is central to meaningful and sustainable change.”
Looking beyond the parameters of the KPI, industry-wide data collated by Screen Australia suggests women are still underrepresented in most key roles, particularly in feature drama and as writers in all categories compared to agency-funded (as outlined in the data below).
"Inclusion at all levels of the industry is critical and Screen Australia recognises that more work must be done to promote a diversity of perspectives and characters across Australian screens. We look forward to continuing our work with the Gender Matters Taskforce in 2024 to further promote gender equity across the broader industry,” Brunsdon continued.
Chair of the Gender Matters Taskforce and filmmaker Rosie Lourde said, “Screen Australia’s Gender Matters KPI data proves that the industry-wide equity work invested to date is working in many areas, and that a holistic ecosystem of change is necessary to ensure the wins for gender parity are not lost as the industry evolves.”
“Comparing both data sets, it is also clear that more effort must be made beyond Screen Australia’s direct sphere of influence – especially in feature drama. The Gender Matters Taskforce is dedicated to working across and with the broader industry to ensure that equity and inclusion are everyone’s responsibility, and that our sector is more accessible.”
DATA RELATED TO THE SCREEN AUSTRALIA KPI
The data set that informs the KPI includes Screen Australia-funded applications in both production and development. This is the fourth-year detailed data on development applications has been available, and the seventh-year of data for production applications.
The overall results for 2022/23 reflect a continued high representation of women key creatives across approved applications in TV/VOD drama development and production at 68% and 64% respectively. The categories with the lowest proportions of approved women key creatives were feature drama production and documentary production, both slightly below parity at 49%.
There were significant year-on-year improvements in 2022/23 across the development categories. Feature drama development increased from the lowest percentage in 2021/22 at 39% to 54%; online drama development increased from 44% to 60% in 2022/23; and documentary development increased by 12% to 57% in 2022/23.
In terms of results for the individual key creative roles, women producers achieved at least 50% in each development and production category. While participation by women producers was generally higher than women writers and directors, there were increases in the proportion of approved women writers and directors across most development and production categories.
The results are broken down below, and the full data is available here.
PRODUCTION KEY POINTS
Gains in the proportion of total approved women key creatives were seen in TV/VOD drama production (64%) and online drama production (62%).
Conversely, a slight downward trend continued for feature production in 2022/23, with approved women key creatives at 49%, down from 52% in 2021/22. Approved women key creatives in documentary production also fell to 49%, from a high of 59% in 2021/22.
- TV/VOD drama production: saw a continued upward trend for women in all key creative roles, reaching a seven-year high. The overall results of 64% across all approved key creative roles in 2022/23 was a significant increase from 2021/22 (55%) and the initial year of reporting in 2016/17 (47%). Looking at individual key creative roles in 2021/22 compared to 2022/23, women producers increased from 61% to 67%, women directors increased from 52% to 59%, and women writers increased from 53% to 64%.
- Feature drama production: while approved women key creatives in this category was 49% in 2022/23 (down from 52% in 2021/22), there were gains for both women writers and directors in 2022/23. Approved women directors increased by 10% to 43% in 2022/23, and writers increased slightly to 46%. Approved women producers declined from 63% in 2021/22 to 56% in 2022/23. Feature drama production was smaller than other categories in 2022/23, meaning one funding decision can impact the results in this category.
- Online drama production: key creative roles saw an overall seven-year high across all approved key creative roles, with an increase from 52% in 2021/22 to 62% in 2022/23, well above the three-year average of 56%. Approved women directors significantly increased from 37% in 2021/22 to 62% in 2022/23. There was also an increase in the proportion of approved women writers from 50% in 2021/22 to 63% in 2022/23. Women producers also remained above parity despite falling from 67% in 2021/22 to 60% in 2022/23. This category contained titles approved for online drama production funding via the initiatives Fresh Blood, Digital Originals, Skip Ahead 8 and Every Voice.
- Documentary production: there were slight decreases in participation across all key creative roles from 59% in 2021/22 to just below parity at 49% in 2022/23, which is also slightly below the three-year average of 53%. There were also declines across each key creative role individually: approved women producers fell from 67% in 2021/22 to 55% in 2022/23; women directors declined from 55% in 2021/22 to below parity at 43% in 2022/23; and women writers were also below parity at 47%, down from 51% in 2021/22. This category contained titles approved for documentary production funding via initiatives such as Every Voice, Skip Ahead 8, the First Nations Creators Program 2022 and the First Nations Factual Showcase.
DEVELOPMENT KEY POINTS
In 2022/23 all development categories saw year-on-year increases in the percentage of approved women key creative roles. The category with the highest percentage of approved women key creative roles in 2022/23 was TV/VOD drama development at 68%. Online drama development increased from 44% in 2021/22 to 60% in 2022/23, while improvements were also seen in feature drama development (up 15% to 54% in 2022/23) and documentary development (up 12% to 57% in 2022/23).
- TV/VOD drama development: has been at or above parity in all approved key creative roles for the past four years, and had the highest overall percentage of approved women key creatives out of any category in 2022/23 (68%). Women producers increased to a four-year high of 83%, women directors dropped slightly from 53% in 2021/22 to 50% in 2022/23 and women writers dropped just one percentage point to 63% in 2022/23.
- Feature drama development: had significant improvements in 2022/23, with the overall percentage of approved women key creatives increasing from 39% in 2021/22 to 54% in 2022/23. In 2022/23 the results were at or above parity across each key creative role: approved women producers rose from 46% in 2021/22 to 58% in 2022/23; directors increased from 44% to 53% in 2022/23; and writers increased from 29% to 50% in 2022/23.
- Online drama development: also saw improvements in 2022/23 with the percentage of approved women key creatives rising from 44% in 2021/22 to 60% in 2022/23. There were increases to above parity across all key creative roles individually: approved women producers increased from 50% in 2021/22 to 56% in 2022/23; directors rose from 50% to 63% in 2022/23; and writers rose from 38% to 63% in 2022/23. Online drama development was smaller than other categories in 2022/23, meaning one funding decision can impact the results in this category.
- Documentary development: similarly saw improvements in the proportion of approved women key creative roles, with the overall percentage increasing from 45% in 2021/22 to above parity at 57% in 2022/23. In 2022/23 the results were also above parity across each key creative role: approved women producers increased from 52% in 2021/22 to 64% in 2022/23; directors increased from 43% to 53% in 2022/23; and writers increased from 36% to 51% in 2022/23. This category was influenced by initiatives including AIDC Fresh Cuts and the First Nations Factual Showcase.
DATA OUTSIDE THE SCREEN AUSTRALIA KPI
Screen Australia also tracks data that falls outside of the KPI. This includes protagonist data across successful Screen Australia applications for feature, online, and television drama development and production, in order to monitor female representation on screen. Screen Australia also tracks games development data – a new funding area for the agency from 2021/22.
The agency also tracks industry-wide data, which includes titles that do not receive Screen Australia funding, alongside titles that do. Industry-wide data relates to titles entering production on Australian shores: from large scale international productions to lower budget ‘indie’ films, local documentaries, and dramas for television and online. The industry-wide data can indicate if and where progress is being made across the screen sector in key creative roles. This data takes more time to compile, and 2021/22 results are now available.
GAMES DEVELOPMENT
2022/23 is the second-year of reporting for games development. It’s worth noting that in games, the term ‘development’ is akin to ‘production’ in film/television/online (learn more in the Games Funding 101 Podcast here). Additionally, the key creative roles are different. The 2022/23 reporting year expanded games development roles into three categories: ‘creative’ roles such as lead designer or composer, ‘business’ roles such as CEO and consultant, and ‘technical’ roles such as lead developer or programmer. Some roles cross two or three categories (such as art director); those roles were counted once for each category that the role fell under.
Across all approved key games development roles, 32% were occupied by women in 2022/23. Women games developers were 36% of creative roles, 37% of business roles, and 20% of technical roles. While these results are low, research by the Interactive Games & Entertainment Association (IGEA) suggests that the majority of people working in game development in Australia are men (75% in 2021/22). See the IGEA 2021-2022 Australian Games Development Report here for more information.
Whilst games development is not part of the Gender Matters KPI, Screen Australia will continue to track and report on this area as the underrepresentation of women game developers remains an area of focus for the agency.
PROTAGONIST DATA
Protagonist data does not count towards the KPI. Protagonist data has been released since 2016/17 across production applications, which gives a wider view of change of on-screen representation in Screen Australia-funded projects. Protagonist data in drama development has been tracked since 2019/20. Protagonist data continues to achieve or exceed parity, with notable female representation present across approved drama applications in both the production and development categories.
Approved feature drama production applications have demonstrated significant improvement over the past seven years from below parity in 2016/17 to 65% in 2022/23, a seven-year high. Likewise, TV/VOD drama production applications shows consistent improvement with an increase from the 2021/22 year to 64% in 2022/23, another seven-year high. Online drama production also increased to 61% in 2022/23.
Likewise, approved development applications show meaningful figures in 2022/23. Both feature drama and online drama development show upward movement after declines the year before – feature drama development increased from 55% to 61% in 2022/23 and online drama development more than doubled representation of women from 35% in 2021/22 to a four-year high of 73% in 2022/23. TV/VOD drama development applications showed consistent growth to 71% in 2022/23.
INDUSTRY-WIDE DATA
Screen Australia measures drama and documentary production across the entire industry, not just agency-funded titles.
This data set is based on statistics provided by industry, with titles sorted according to the year in which they started production. Note there is a lag receiving this data, which has now been processed for 2021/22. The full results go back as far as 2011/12 for most categories. In previous years this data was aggregated across years, however, to provide a more substantive view of the results, the data is now published year-by-year. Published data only covers producers, directors, and writers, but there are many other screen industry roles where work needs to be done to achieve equity.
While industry-wide data shows women key creatives are still under parity in certain areas such as feature drama production and documentary production, the 2021/22 data shows strong results industry-wide for women producers in the TV drama and online drama categories.
- The feature drama category demonstrates the need for continued engagement to address equity. Gains in 2020/21 with 44% producers, 37% writers, and 43% directors reverted to 37% producers, 22% writers, and significantly decreased by over half for directors to 17% in 2021/22.
- Documentary presents smaller variations. While still below parity, it remains comparable to the previous year at 48% producers, 42% writers, and 36% directors in 2021/22 compared to 52% producers, 40% writers, and 37% directors in 2020/21.
- TV drama figures paint a different picture with continued increases across all areas – from 62% producers, 56% writers, and 39% directors in 2020/21, up to 64% producers, 58% writers, and 43% directors in 2021/22. This category demonstrates a sustained upward trend, with women producers achieving parity consistently since 2015/16.
- While online drama saw slight decreases across all key roles, both producers and writers remained above parity in 2021/22 at 63% and 52% respectively. Directors dropped to 37% in the same period.
NOTES ON METHOD
Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number.
In this document, terms such as ‘female’, ‘woman’ and ‘women’ are all used to describe gender, rather than biological sex at birth.
Data related to Screen Australia funding applications (including the Screen Australia KPI)
Data is based on funding applications: applicants nominate the gender of writer, producer, director and other roles, selecting either ‘female’, ‘male’, ‘X (Indeterminate/Intersex/Unspecified)’, or ‘prefer not to disclose’. Screen Australia updated these terms from 2023/24 to align with the most recent guidance from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Across all applications from 2020/21 to 2022/23, less than 1% of key roles were marked ‘prefer not to disclose’.
All documentary titles, including titles funded by the Online and First Nations departments, are categorised as Documentary. Producer Equity Program (PEP) documentary projects are excluded as they do not undergo creative assessment.
Drama applications are generally sorted by funding program. In 2020/21, the ‘TV drama’ category was re-titled to ‘TV/VOD’, in line with Screen Australia’s production funding program. 2019/20 title With or Without You was funded via Feature Production, but is categorised here as Feature Development, as the funding went to Development-like activities.
Titles that receive drama development funding are categorised by their intended first release platform.
Decisions to approve or decline funding are counted. Decisions to advance a title to a further stage of assessment are not counted. Note, some titles have multiple funding decisions in a single year. Variations to funding for the same activity, such as production funding variations, are not counted.
Data includes Screen Australia initiatives administered by third parties, where data is available. Data was not available for unsuccessful applications for one initiative in 2019/20, two initiatives in 2021/22, and one initiative in 2022/23.
Some titles, such as anthologies, involve larger numbers of creative roles. The 2019/20 dataset involves two anthologies approved for feature production funding: Cook 2020: Our Right of Reply/ Nga Pouwhenua and Here Out West. Anthologies did not have significant influence on the 2020/21, 2021/22 or 2022/23 data.
The application dataset is more expansive than the 2015 report Gender Matters: Women in the Australian Screen Industry, and is not directly comparable.
Specific notes on writer, producer and director data
Writer, producer and director roles are counted. Credits such as ‘creative producer’ are evaluated.
Applications data measures each writer, producer or director role: individuals that serve in multiple roles are counted for each role.
Writer, producer and director roles are based on the most recent information processed in Screen Australia’s applications database.
Specific notes on Protagonist data
Protagonists are measured for drama only (not documentary). Please note that Protagonist data is not included in Screen Australia’s 2020/21 to 2022/23 KPI.
Data is based on information available at time of application. Applicants were provided with a definition of Protagonist. Protagonists were then verified by application assessors.
Titles such as anthologies and ensemble dramas with large numbers of protagonists are included. Sketch comedies with large numbers of non-recurring characters are excluded.
Specific notes on Games development data
Please note that Games development data is not included in Screen Australia’s Gender Matters KPI.
Key roles were designated by applicants. Due to the large variety of roles in games development, Screen Australia evaluated applications and categorised roles as ‘Creative' and/or 'Business' and/or ‘‘Technical’.
Individuals that serve in multiple roles are counted for each role. Data is based on the most recent information processed in Screen Australia’s application database.
Industry-wide data
Data shows the percentage of individuals with credits: individuals are counted once.
Gender data is based on information provided to Screen Australia by agencies, broadcasters and producers, and some publicly-sourced information. Industry-wide data includes all titles entering production in Australia, both domestic and inbound international, in a financial year. This includes large scale international productions to lower budget local films and programs. The latest industry-wide data available is 2021/22.
Prior to 2023, industry-wide data was combined into multiple years. Following a review of the data, year-by-year results are now available for all categories. 11 years of year-by-year data is available for Feature drama, TV drama and Documentary. 6 years of year-by-year data is available for Online drama.
Data is based on titles analysed by Screen Australia for drama and documentary production statistics. Screen Australia tracks drama titles (feature, series, serials, mini-series, single-episodes and telemovies) with total durations over 30 minutes.
Titles that premiere in Australia online are classified as Online drama. Online drama data begins from 2016/17 when there was a change to tracking criteria. See here for more: https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/fact-finders/production-trends/online-drama
Titles that have a simultaneous TV broadcast and online release are categorised as TV drama. TV drama includes free-to-air and BVOD titles from 2011/12, plus subscription TV and SVOD titles from 2014/15.
Documentary titles tracked include single or series titles over 15 minutes in duration. The roles of writer, director and producer are not always available or applicable, particularly for externally sourced documentary titles. See here for more: https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/fact-finders/production-trends
Industry-wide data is indicative only, as some titles do not provide or publish credits/information. Data is subject to revision.
What to read next
Screen Australia has met the goal of the Gender Matters KPI: 55% of key creative roles across approved development and production funding were women across the three-year reporting period. However, there was a downward trend across the reporting period, and more work needs to be done.
13 Oct 2022
Screen Australia