Screen Australia to axe 12 staff and support for industry training programs after budget cuts
Screen Australia has announced how it will save more than $5m this year with measures including lowering its maximum investment in films to $2m, cutting 12 full time staff members and shedding $500,000 from marketing support.
The publicly-funded body which provides grants to Australian film and drama producers was handed a $25m cut to its budget by the Federal Government over four years in May’s budget, and has undertaken a review of its processes to find where it could make the savings.
Training funds are also set to be cut with $400,000 stripped from the Talent Escalator program, whilst there will be a “transition away” from direct funding for screen resource organisations, with a move to commission them to do professional development activities handled in house.
Staff cuts will see the body reduced to effectively half of its 2008 size, with 100 full time employees as opposed to 190. CEO Graeme Mason said the review had led to a “renewed focus on the core business of the agency”.
In a posting on the Screen Australia website today Mason wrote: “We are streamlining our operations and making processes simpler and easier for industry, and to the greatest extent possible we have tried to maintain funding for on-screen production. We have also had to make difficult decisions, including a further 10 per cent reduction in staff, cuts to professional development and marketing initiatives, transitioning away from funding industry training organisations, and a relatively small reduction in production investment and project development.
“There are challenges before us, but I also see great potential. We will back our creative talent to capitalise on opportunities and take more Australian stories out to the world. We will grow the pie for Australian production by facilitating international collaborations, using advantages such as our talent and our world class production reputation.
“We will reduce process as much as possible and step out of the way of industry, providing more funding as grants, with no copyright interest, so that producers keep more revenue from their productions. We will encourage new models of digital production and distribution that ensure our industry continues to evolve with its audiences.”
AS well as the cuts the review has changed some processes of the organisation, including making all funding up to $500,000 a grant and relinquishing copyright on projects with that level of funding, with a new online application system to be introduced.
The marketing and state of industry departments will be abolished and replaced with a business and audience department to place more emphasis on business development, whilst funding to send talent and producers to international festivals to support their films, which drew criticism last year, have also been revised.
Alex Hayes
Whilst this may look like a disaster, it was inevitable.
The old model is dead. In fact, it’s a rotting corpse.
Focusing the agency on digital, transmedia, gamification and most importantly expanding the application of the Producer rebate towards the brave new digital world is an absolute necessity, less we face extinction.
User ID not verified.
trying to put a positive ‘spin’ on the budget cuts is nice but the cuts will decimate local support so necessary for very new and emerging talent – those just learning their craft, in favour of those who already have a profile. How sad.
User ID not verified.
independent film making in Australia is dead and has been for some time. It just hasn’t had a decent burial.But that artist and creative visionary George Brandis gives me enormous optimism and euphoria for the future, And Mr Mason is just the man to keep the bullshit boilerplate press releases coming on how productively the film industry is adapting and evolving. If you put all the FFC and Screen Australia press releases end to end Tasmania would be as rich as Qatar,
User ID not verified.
Yes it may well hurt the agency, but re-focusing , offering up greater returns to producers, investing in developing digital delivery pathways, taking a tactical rather than strategic approach and looking at business and audience development by “abolishing” a redundant marketing department can only be a very very good thing.
User ID not verified.
Maybe don’t hand out the 40% to films like Gatsby is a better cut.
User ID not verified.
I hope that Graeme will take advantage of the cuts in staff to get rid of some dead wood. Indeed, with the right staff working within SA huge savings could be made in the assessment processes that now see so much money flowing out of SA to external assessors. Hire good Project Managers, let them make decisions based in their talent and experience and be responsible for both their successes and failures. Short term contracts for experienced professionals who, after their stint at SA, go back into the industry they came from. The less professional film bureaucrats the better.
User ID not verified.
@ dunno: “Maybe don’t hand out the 40% to films like Gatsby is a better cut.”
This is incorrect. The 40% that Gatsby was entitled to isn’t funded by Screen Australia – it is the 40% Producer’s Offset that is funded directly from the Tax Department.
Screen Australia merely administers it – any money that is paid out doesn’t come out of Screen Australia’s budget .. so even if they had refused to permit the payout it wouldn’t have saved them a cent.
User ID not verified.
Sorry Mac – your right. But you get my point… it’s all tax payers money, and it’s really sad to see things like the talent esculator get cut but we are paying for 40% of Hollywood films in producer’s offset and 15% of VFX budgets. The government needs to actuallt have an agenda.
User ID not verified.