Screen Australia Chair announces new strategic direction for the agency
Michael Ebeid AM shares how Screen Australia is evolving to support a vibrant, viable Australian screen industry to seize the opportunities of tomorrow.
At the 2025 Screen Forever Conference, Chair of Screen Australia Michael Ebeid AM reflected on the future of the screen industry and shared how Screen Australia is working to future-proof screen practitioners.
To support these priorities, Screen Australia has articulated a new organisational purpose: to build a vibrant, viable screen industry that reflects the depth and diversity of Australian stories.
This purpose is supported by five strategic pillars:
- Empower: Equip the industry with insights and resources to stay ahead in a dynamic market.
- Enrich: Build a strong, inclusive industry by fostering screen businesses and developing talent.
- Enable: Bring more Australian stories to screen through innovation in production, distribution and financing.
- Engage: Connect all Australians with resonant stories across the platforms they use.
- Elevate: Position Australia as a global leader in screen production and storytelling.
Read the full transcript below. As part of the keynote, Ebeid also announced updates to Narrative Content and Documentary guidelines.
Michael Ebeid AM presents Screen Australia’s Future Focus
SPEECH Transcript
Opening Remarks
I'm delighted to be here with you all today. Looking around the room at so many familiar faces – here at Australia's premiere gathering of storytellers – feels like a homecoming for me.
I'd like to also add my respects to the traditional owners of the Yugambeh and Kombumerri peoples and to our First Nations colleagues here today.
This first year as Chair has given me plenty to digest, and, with Deirdre also in her first year, we've had the opportunity to question everything we do with fresh eyes.
I believe our industry has seen more change in the last five years than possibly in the last 50. From how content is made to how it's funded, discovered, watched and played – the transformation has been profound.
If we're not all thinking about how to work differently – how we produce, create, distribute our content and develop new financing models – many of us won't be here in five years' time if we continue to cling onto old or broken models of doing things that are no longer fit for today’s world.
That's why in developing Screen Australia's strategic direction, we've become relentlessly future-focused about how best to support the industry to deliver on our Purpose during these changing and disruptive times.
The screen landscape is evolving
Globally, we are seeing industry contraction and consolidation. While in Australia, we're experiencing more growing pains, with the changes in audience behaviour continuing to impact how content is created and consumed – affecting commissioning trends, business strategies and production costs. These changes, set against a backdrop of declining ad revenue for traditional broadcasters and an overall volatile financing market, make for some genuine challenges for all of us.
Despite this, I believe there is good reason to be optimistic given we see many data points that demonstrate our industry has been growing.
Firstly, the consistent year-on-year increases in the number and value of applications received for Screen Australia funding has meant our ability to support projects hasn't kept pace with demand, limiting our ability to invest in projects. Five years ago we could support half of the applications we received, but in 2023/24 we were only able to fund 30% of applications, and for this year it is tracking at 27%.
Naturally, we will work with the new Government to help us invest more in the industry and I thank SPA for their support in that endeavour.
The second data point that gives me optimism is the total Government contributions supporting the screen industry has grown considerably in the last few years.
The value of Producer Offset funding has almost doubled since 2019. Meanwhile, the value of the PDV and Location Offsets funding have also increased significantly – approximately 68% over the same period – bringing the total value of Government rebates close to $1billion this year. And then when you add in the State Screen funding, which has also almost doubled in the last 5 years, it brings the total up to $1.2 billion of support.
These are concrete numbers that show the underlying strength of our industry, albeit experiencing some growing pains from the shifts I outlined earlier that require transformation.
Savvy producers are already evolving to meet the challenges – diversifying outputs, understanding and addressing audience trends, developing more creative business models, and seizing the potential in collaborating between production companies. These successful producers are the ones that remain positive and understand that doing things the way they always have is a fool's strategy.
Equally, Screen Australia can't continue to do things as we always have. Today, I'm excited to share our new Strategic Framework that will underpin how Screen Australia will work with industry, to ensure we remain effective and efficient in supporting the industry through a time of rapid change. But first, I'll share how we arrived at our new framework.
What we've learned and what you've told us
When I commenced last year as the Chair of Screen Australia, I found a passionate, dedicated workforce hungry for a strategic focus that understood well the changing landscape. I also observed many areas where we could improve for early wins.
Following months of reflection and a targeted consultation, in January we launched our Industry Survey to strengthen and help inform our new strategic direction. We received over 900 responses in just two weeks from a good cross section of the sector. A big thank you to everyone who took the time to share your feedback with us.
Your feedback was clear: our application process was overly complex, our resources too thinly spread, and we needed to become more future-focused and transparent – in short, be more relevant, sustainable, and impactful.
The key takeaways were clear: the industry is feeling strain, needs support with rising production costs, requires better understanding of audience trends and digital platforms, has a greater focus on global distribution and new ways to reach wider audiences, and sees room for increased collaboration.
Our survey showed that fewer than a third of creatives feel confident in understanding key industry trends. And while many feel prepared for AI, 56% expressed concerns about its increasing impact. But there was a clear correlation between those already using AI and those who said they are excited by its future potential.
In addition to the survey, we conducted interviews with key industry stakeholders and spoke with screen agencies worldwide. It is clear: none of us can do this alone. Our industry is known for its tenacity and innovation. But to thrive in the local and international screen ecosystem, it is vital we work together – with SPA, its members, the guilds, with State and other screen agencies, and with our Federal Government.
Our Strategic Framework
All these inputs informed our new Screen Australia future-focused Strategic Framework and priorities, which I am excited to share with you today. I believe this will focus us on what matters the most and has the biggest impact – helping the sector navigate the future to ensure we have a thriving industry.
At the core of our new Strategic Framework is a shift from measuring our activity to measuring effectiveness. It's not about how many initiatives or projects we support, but about whether we're achieving our purpose and have impact.
Our new Purpose, to help build a vibrant and viable screen industry that reflects the depth and diversity of Australia's stories, will be delivered through five key pillars: to Empower, Enrich, Enable, Engage and Elevate the sector.
I'll summarise each pillar and dive deeper into the Engage pillar to give you a deeper understanding of our approach.
In the first pillar, we'll focus on equipping the industry with quality insights and resources through a range of initiatives like:
- a new version of the Screen Currency report, which will investigate the economic and cultural value of screen and games production in Australia;
- an enhanced Viewfinder series will provide insights into audience behaviours and trends in what they like watching, guiding all of us on how to better connect with audiences where they are; and
- a refreshed PICA report (Production Infrastructure & Capacity Audit) offering deeper insights into the various challenges impacting the growth of our workforce and demand for facilities.
In short, we want to be the source of truth for insights, market intelligence and relevant reporting. Our soon-to-be launched new website will also empower you, making it easier to find the intel you need.
In recognising the economic challenges that production businesses face, we will look to extend support beyond individual projects – supporting companies, developing creative entrepreneurship, supporting screen professionals and strengthening pathways for long-term economic sustainability.
For example, to help maintain a strong and inclusive industry, we will foster screen businesses with financial sustainability programs for producers, talent development initiatives and a Private Investment toolkit to help access alternative financing.
The Enable pillar is all about bringing more Australian stories to screen through innovation in production, distribution, financing models and more streamlined funding programs. This pillar is where the bulk our funding will be deployed.
For example, we will:
- further simplify our Narrative Content and Documentary Funding guidelines and application processes;
- prioritise funding programs that deliver meaningful, systemic change, especially around First Nations, Documentary and Children's;
- we will open our support to include Short Films; and
- maintain the momentum around Australian games development.
We believe there is great value in the industry working together towards a common goal. Screen Australia will soon kick off a new project to collaborate with the sector to establish a North Star – a shared strategic vision that unites all our efforts and ambitions. You only have to look at the music and tourism industries to see how working together towards a uniting industry goal can have great outcomes.
The audience is at the heart of what we do, and one of the biggest shifts we've seen in the industry is audience behaviour. What and how people watch has changed dramatically over the past five years – and will change again in the next five. That's why one of our strategy pillars is Engage – connecting Australians with stories that resonate, across the platforms they use.
To track our progress in this pillar, we're introducing two clear measures of success which will be measured annually:
- The proportion of Australians who value Australian screen content.
- The proportion who are aware of Australian productions.
To help move the needle on those metrics, we're also changing how we work and provide support. For example:
- We're moving to a platform-agnostic approach to Development and Production funding – backing the best ideas regardless of format or platform, which will see more 'digital-first' productions in line with where audiences are.
- We're introducing audience testing into film development, aiming to lift the conversion rate from development to production.
- We will need audience reach and engagement data from funded projects, so we can better understand and evaluate impact to aid our decision making.
So, as you can see, we are becoming more insight-driven and impact-focused – again, shifting from measuring activity to measuring our effectiveness.
Elevate is all about the increasingly important role Screen Australia plays in supporting local practitioners and their content with unique global opportunities. We'll build on this work to position Australia as a global leader in screen production by:
- facilitating more international collaborations through Co-Production opportunities aligned to strategic markets and goals;
- prioritising our presence at key global events and markets;
- developing a more consolidated and targeted international strategy; and
- we will continue to elevate our independent games industry on the global stage, to help them earn the international recognition they deserve.
All of this is just a snapshot at how Screen Australia's new strategic framework will shape how we work and support the local industry – with clarity, focus and a stronger connection to outcomes that matter and have impact.
We've hit the ground running
Over the past six months we have made significant strides in not just laying the groundwork for our strategic direction, but we have commenced implementation on several initiatives. We have already:
- reduced our programs and initiatives by 50% to better focus our investments;
- implemented some streamlining in our application forms, with more simplicity to come;
- created an industry-facing advisory role on Producer Offset and Co-productions, allowing producers to get detailed and early advice on their applications. We have appointed Michele McDonald into that role;
- reduced the number of Offset appeals cases in the Tribunal by 90%;
- appointed a dedicated Head of Games, Joey Egger, to recognise its growing importance; and
- become more transparent around our processes and funding decisions, which will be further aided with our updated website launching in the coming months.
Closing remarks
Today I've shared a vision of what Screen Australia is becoming – an organisation focused on what matters most to better support your work and our industry's future.
I hope you can see elements of your feedback reflected in our new Strategic Pillars that will help empower and enrich the industry, drive deeper engagement, and enable and elevate our sector. We've come to affectionately call them our five "E's" internally – a simple reminder of our commitment to you.
We've hit the ground running, but this is just the beginning of what we aim to achieve together.
I can think of two clear constants that fill me with optimism: the first is that this sector is brimming with resilience, creativity, passion and innovation. The second is that telling Australian stories is vital to who we are as a society and represents the depth and diversity of who we are.
As we navigate these changing times, I'm reminded of a quote from educator and author Peter Drucker when he said: "The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence itself, but to act with yesterday's logic."
At Screen Australia, we're committed to new thinking and new approaches, and dedicated to meeting the changing demands of modern audiences as we change with you to be a more relevant and value-adding partner.
Together, I believe we can create the future of Australia's screen industry – not just adapt to it. I believe we can build an ecosystem that thrives amid rising production costs, funding challenges, evolving audience trends and new distribution platforms. And not just for ourselves, but for our ultimate customer – our audiences. We just have to be brave enough to let go of the old models that we know are broken or challenged.
Thank you.
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