PR agency-based comedy and tabloid newsroom drama get Screen Australia funding
A comedy set in a public relations agency and a drama set in a “tabloid television newsroom in remote northern Australia” are among 58 projects that will share $3m in funding, Screen Australia announced today.
Other funding recipients include Mia Freedman’s news website Mamamia, which has been given money to enable the website “to move into the narrative story space while also providing an avenue for an online web series supported by Screen Australia to gain access to audiences and generate revenue.”
Screen Australia noted that the 58 projects, part of a project called Gender Matters, represented the largest number of projects funded in a single day in the agency’s history.
What a weasel title: Gender Matters. Obviously Women Matter would have exposed this for the blatantly sexist programe it is. If I was an up and coming young (male) writer this programe would seriously irk me. And I’d be justified. It’s one thing to have a quota 50% male, 50% female, but to exclude one gender in something called Gender Matters is insulting and offensive to male writers.
Would be smarter to adjust the male/female balance on funding film/tv bodies.