Short Cuts: Screen Australia considers radical quota to ensure 50% of films are directed by women

Screen Australia is considering a radical push for a quota to ensure 50 per cent of the directors of funded films are women.

The Australian Directors Guild has proposed the agency adopt the target introduced by the Swedish Film Institute in 2012 – equal representation by women and men as screenwriters, directors and producers – which was reached within three years.

A member of the guild's committee pushing for gender equality, director Gillian Armstrong, believes it is time to take action given the low number of women directing feature films.

"It's ridiculous," she says. "It's been 30 years since Jane Campion and I went through a glass ceiling and I feel there haven't been enough people following us."

Armstrong says the industry, after asking why women aren't directing more films for 30 years, must introduce quotas.

"There has to be positive action because it's just so obvious there are just as many talented young women coming out of film schools, winning short films awards, yet there's still not the same numbers up there directing dramas, being selected for Cannes and so on."

Armstrong says the Swedish target has been a striking success, with 80 per cent of the country's features selected for the Toronto International Film Festival last month directed by women.

"It just made people think, well, when we're deciding on the director, maybe we'll have a look at the list of young women as well as men."

While Australia has had many successful female directors – with best director at the Australian Film Institute and Academy Awards being won five times by women in the last 12 years – they have been barely represented behind the camera in the films released in cinemas so far this year.

Guild executive director Kingston Anderson admits the proposal will be controversial.

"We all felt that unless we pushed a hard agenda, nothing would change," he says. "And nothing has changed: that's the problem. The imbalance is so huge that it's pretty clear."

The guild reports a sympathetic response to its proposal in a meeting with senior executives at Screen Australia, including chief executive Graeme Mason.

While not willing to give specifics, an agency executive admits it is considering changing its approach to gender and other diversity issues.

"We are looking at new research to benchmark what we currently see of ourselves on our screens and new initiatives to improve opportunities for more diverse filmmakers and creatives, including women," says the agency's senior manager for strategy and communications, Georgie McClean.

"We are looking at best practice internationally and ways that we can incentivise, facilitate and evaluate change so that our industry and our audiences all benefit from a more expansive approach to our creative life on screen and our rich cultural legacy."

Australian film's striking diversity

While comedies have often been the country's most successful films, this year's record crop of Australian films has been notably shy of them.

The $64 million taken by Australian films this year includes Hollywood-backed action movie Mad Max: Fury Road, dramas The Water Diviner and Last Cab To Darwin and family films Paper Planes, Blinky Bill: The Movie and Oddball.

While box office records can be deceptive because of inflation and higher ticket prices, the box office share of 6.8 per cent is the best since 2001, with the romantic comedy UnIndian, comic drama The Dressmaker, cross-cultural romance Alex & Eve, comedy Now Add Honey and Vanuatu tribal romance Tanna among the releases still to come.

And once 2015 has finished, it won't take long before Australian films start selling tickets again next year. The children's TV spin-off Nowhere Boys: The Book of Shadows, directed by David Caesar (Dirty Deeds, Underbelly) opens on January 1.

High hopes for Prometheus sequel

Hopes are high that Ridley Scott will be filming the sequel to Prometheus in Sydney soon.

The veteran director, who is having yet another worldwide hit with The Martian, has indicated in numerous interviews that he is keen to shoot Alien: Paradise Lost at Fox Studios from next February pending confirmation of a tax rebate and any additional federal and state government support.

The 77-year-old director of Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise and Gladiator met Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop in New York recently to put the case for shooting the movie in Australia. He is also working on a Blade Runner sequel.

Cave and Roach among Screen Music nominees

Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Archie Roach and Shane Howard are among the well-known names up for the Screen Music Awards this year.

In nominations announced on Thursday, the hot competition for feature film score of the year includes David Hirschfelder for The Water Diviner, Cave and Ellis for the French drama Far From Men, Jed Kurzel for the British-New Zealand western Slow West and Michael Lira for the American comic drama Good 'Ol Boy.

Cave and Ellis are also up for best soundtrack album for Far From Men alongside Hirschfelder for The Water Diviner, Bryony Marks for Felony and Cezary Skubiszewski for Women He's Undressed.

Howard and Roach are nominated for best original song composed for the screen for A Secret River from The Secret River. The awards, staged by the Australasian Performing Right Association, Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society and Australian Guild of Screen Composers, will be held at the Melbourne Recital Centre on November 12.

Veteran actress to finally watch The Box

At 93, longtime actress Lois Ramsey will be watching an Australian film she starred in for the first time tonight.

Backdoor Cinema is hosting a 40th anniversary screening of The Box, a spin-off from the television industry TV series, at Alexandria Hotel.

Host Andrew Mercado, who says the film is memorable for being the acting debut of Graham Kennedy playing himself, has promised Ramsey the best seat in the room. Tickets are $10 at the door.

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