Screen Australia today released the 2023/24 outcomes of the current three-year Gender Matters KPI. The KPI is to have at least 50% of the key creative roles – defined as producer, director and writer – across all projects receiving Screen Australia development and production funding to be occupied by women, non-binary and/or gender diverse people across a three-year average – 2023/24 to 2025/26.
This is the first year of the new KPI reporting that expands beyond women to also examine non-binary and gender diverse representation across the sector. Games data is not counted towards this KPI due to differences in key roles. Please see notes on method here.
The 2023/24 results show Screen Australia is on track to meet this new Gender Matters KPI, with 58% of key creative roles across approved development and production funding are held by women, non-binary and/or gender diverse people.
Screen Australia’s Chief Operating Officer Grainne Brunsdon said, “With the start of a new Gender Matters three-year KPI, it is important to reflect on the scope and capacity of the initiative.
We are encouraged by the growing representation of non-binary and gender diverse people, and for women to have reached or exceeded parity in many categories across successful Screen Australia applications.
While the 58% result for the most recent financial year is heartening, this has been influenced by a higher proportion of women, non-binary and/or gender diverse people in producer roles (61%). We know directors and writers are an area of focus particularly in feature drama production and more work is needed to support equity in these fields.
The agency represents only a portion of the local screen industry and our industry-wide data set highlights the need for further conversation and action around gender equity, inclusion and access and collaboration will be essential. We look forward to working with industry to achieve genuine representation in our screen industry.”
Examining successful Screen Australia applications (development and production)
The data set that informs the KPI includes Screen Australia-funded project applications in both production and development. We further breakdown the data into eight report categories: feature drama, TV/VOD drama, documentary, and online drama in both development and production.
The overall figures for 2023/24 show that all key creative roles are over parity. 61% of producer roles, 58% of writer roles and 52% of director roles across approved applications were women, non-binary and/or gender diverse people.
A summary of results is provided below.
Power BI to go hereDevelopment key takeaways
In reviewing successful Screen Australia development applications for 2023/24, 60% of development roles were held by women, non-binary and/or gender diverse people, with particularly strong representation in online drama development (73%) and TV/VOD drama development (67%). Feature drama development was at 58%, and documentary development sits just below parity at 48%.
Producers are notably above parity in all development categories particularly online drama development (77%) and TV/VOD drama development (74%). Feature drama development reports 59%, whereas producers in documentary development reached 52%.
Writers are well above parity across three out of four categories with online drama development at 76%, TV/VOD drama development at 63% and feature drama development with 60%. Documentary development writers were below parity at 44%.
Across all report categories, comparatively directors are least represented, but still reach above the 50% target for TV/VOD drama development (63%), online drama development (61%) and feature drama development (56%). Documentary development is at 43%, but it’s worth noting that due to the nature and format of documentary content, directors – and writers – may not be attached at development application stage.
Production key takeaways
As with development applications, producers had the highest level of representation in successful Screen Australia production applications in 2023/24, with women, non-binary and/or gender diverse people representing 59% of producers. Directors in feature drama production (38%) and TV/VOD drama production (39%) are both significantly below parity.
Online drama production shows significant representation of women, non-binary and/or gender diverse people with all three categories – writers, directors, and producers – well above parity at 65%, 69%, and 69% respectively.
Both feature drama production and TV/VOD drama production show considerable variation between creative roles.
Feature drama production writers and directors are below parity with 44% and 38% respectively; while TV/VOD drama production fares slightly better with women, non-binary and/or gender diverse people representing 58% of writers, and 39% of directors.
Overall, documentary production had the lowest level of representation across production categories, however this category was still close to parity with 49% of women, non-binary and/or gender diverse people across all key creative roles. Producers and directors reached parity at 52% and 50% respectively, while writers were 44%.
Industry-wide data
In addition to Screen Australia-funded projects, the agency tracks gender representation across the broader Australian screen industry. This data comprises industry-wide feedback, which includes both Screen Australia-funded projects as well as titles that do not receive Screen Australia funding.
Industry-wide data relates to titles entering production within Australia and includes independent films to large scale international productions, local documentaries, and dramas for television and online. This data focuses on women key creatives only.
It’s important to note that this data set is indicative only and is based on information provided by industry agencies, broadcasters, and producers, as well as some publicly-sourced information, and is recorded based on the financial year a title enters production in Australia. This is a year-round process and consequently there is a one-year lag compared to Screen Australia application data, with 2022/23 results now available.
These results demonstrate the need for continued efforts towards gender equity and inclusion across the domestic industry.
Power BI to go hereIn 2022/23, across all roles combined, women occupied 46% of all key creative roles, with women representing 55% of all industry-wide producer roles, 37% of director roles and 47% of writer roles.
Women are best represented in online drama (57%). TV drama and documentary are just below parity at 48% and 47% respectively, with feature drama least represented at 32%.
Notably, online drama engagement demonstrates the only category to exceed 50% representation across all three key creative roles with writers at 63%, producers at 56% and directors at 52%.
Documentary producers demonstrate consistent representation with 57% reported as women, with writers just below goal at 48% and directors at 37%.
In TV drama, women accounted for 59% of producers, 49% of writers and 37% of directors.
Feature drama remains an area of focus, with all roles below 50% in 2022/23. Women producers (46%) performed significantly better than directors (22%) and writers (29%).
Other screen Australia applications data
Screen Australia also monitors gender diversity in areas outside of the Gender Matters KPI, including the games sector and gender diversity of protagonists in agency-funded projects. This data is available here.
