Following is a transcript of NZFC CEO Dave Gibson's presentation to industry in Auckland on 26 April 2016.
Approximately 12 months ago we launched the NZFC gender policy as part of developing a wider diversity policy.
I don’t think we need to spend any time today on why, we as an industry, need a gender policy.
We would rather update you on progress on the five areas identified and then spend some time discussing ideas to keep improving.
The five areas identified were:
1) An annual award for women in the industry. Each year the award will focus on a different area of the screen industry and be championed by an outstanding female filmmaker. Today we announced the Gaylene Preston Directors' Award.
2) Our second plank was that the NZFC would be open to specific proposals from Guilds and industry organisations to support and enhance their work in upskilling women in the screen industry.
Some examples of progress here:
- We have increased WIFT core funding this year
- Roseanne Liang and Louise Leitch received directing internships on Ash vs Evil Dead via DEGNZ
- Female Directing Incubator (DEGNZ). DEGNZ will select a group of eight female directors and put them through a targeted, year-long incubator programme which involves five workshops
3) Our third plank was that the talent development area of the NZFC would spend more time identifying and engaging with female filmmakers. This is happening at an individual day-to-day level and also some engagement is more formal.
- GZDOC female directing delegation- Pietra Brettkelly, Jess Feast, Sarah Grohnert, Miriam Smith, Kim Webby.
- Waru - funding for a series of 8 short films directed by Māori women with follow-up workshops.
- Directing internship such as Alyx Duncan with Alison McLean on The Rehearsal.
4) We would regularly publish gender statistics based on our funding information.
Studies show effective implementation requires accountability systems that enable you to hold organisations, such as ours, accountable for our commitments. Today we are presenting some gender stats based on development and production applications for feature films that actually specify a producer, director or writer
Here are some comparative numbers for documentary features; obviously the figures for this year don't take into account our last board meeting of the year which is to be held at the end of May.
But this gives us some sense of progress one year after we announced our gender policy
And note we don't have writer stats here as most doco applications don't identify writers.
In narrative feature: again approved, and for all funding applications for development and production.
So generally across the board, some improvements. Except for narrative producers where the number has dropped to 50%.
1) The fifth plank was in the professional development area where we set a target of 50% participation rate for women filmmakers.
a. This applied to the 96 professional development awards, internships and scholarships awarded so far in the financial year.
The gender split is 58% female.
And here are the names of some of those women:
So what's next?
The initiatives we are involved in are broadly similar to funding agencies in a number of other countries, Australia and Ireland for example.
Sweden is a notable exception where they have effectively introduced a quota for feature film funding.
And the BFI have a wider diversity model which involves a tick system also including ethnicity, disability and LGBTI. Details of our wider diversity policy are still on the drawing board.
We'd now like to break into groups for the opportunity for everyone to make suggestions.
END