Antony I Ginnane steps down from SPAA
Veteran producer Antony I. Ginnane will not stand for re-election as President of the Screen Producers Association of Australia for 2011-2012.
Ginnane has been president since 2008, in which time he led the charge to see the Producer Offset for feature films halved to $500,000 to re-invigorate the low budget sector, and with Ausfilm worked to enhance the Location and PDV Incentives.
In a statement, Ginnane said “There has been ‘a tradition’ at SPAA that the President does not stand for office for more than three years; and in the spirit of that tradition and given my long and public support for the continued rotation of film bureaucrats and others to ensure new blood circulates and policies are refreshed I have decided not to run again for President this year.”
Ginnane has keenly promoted SPAA’s Producer Distributor Film Fund (PDFF) proposal to provide a smooth caeer path for producers to move from $5 million films to mid-range $7-$30 million sector in Australia. The PDFF is also aimed to increase attendance of Australian audiences in cinemas for Australian theatrical releases.
SPAA Director, Geoff Brown said “Tony has made an enormous contribution to SPAA over the past three years. His energy, intelligence and drive have helped mould the SPAA agenda and policy program. Tony is respected in Canberra for his effective advocacy of the PDFF and other SPAA causes. He is very passionate about the industry and is one of the few truly colourful characters left in Australian cinema. Tony is also a good friend of mine and he has been very supportive of all the SPAA staff. I wish him well and say thanks.”
Ginnane told the EncoreLive Conference last month, “If we can get this Producer Distributor Film Fund through in the next budget, which will provide a solid funding base for films in the $7-30 million dollar range, it will take the pressure off Screen Australia for funding the $0-5 million dollar range and it will allow Screen Australia to once and for all say ‘these are films we are doing primarily for a cultural prupose, to focus on Australian issues’, and completely circumcise the Australian media to criticise box office failure in those areas and take the box office out of the cultural equation. Conversely, by making films on a bigger canvas in that $7-30million budget range, we’ll be able to lift our percentage of the theatrical box office from five to ten or 11 percent. Instead of having an 18 month wait between Australia and Happy Feet 2 we’ll be able to have one of those films coming out every two or three months so that Australian cinema goers can have a consistently good and entertaining dollar-valued experience when going to the cinema.”
Ginnane has been asked to to continue to assist with the prosecution of the PDFF initiative over the next 12 months as an Executive Consultant.
Ginnane said, “I have been a proud member of SPAA since 1978. It has been a strong and effective advocate of our industry during that time and I know it will continue to be so going forward”.
Thank you, Tony Ginnane! Especially for lowering the Producer Offset to $500,000 and lots of other things you’ve done at SPAA. All the best making more genre films! You rock!!!
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