Plan To Axe Screen Funds Is “Disaster” For NSW TV And Film Industry, Says Australian Producers Body
11.09.2023 - 08:56
/ deadline.com
Plans to axe several screen funding programs in Australia are “hard to comprehend” and will be a “disaster” for the country’s film and TV industry, the country’s producers body has warned.
The New South Wales government, which presides over Sydney and its surrounding areas, is planning to cut a number of existing programs, including the Made in NSW Fund.
The program funds domestic high-end TV and features and has been credited attracting overseas investment into local productions. The likes of local drama Mystery Road, Mad Max 2: Furiosa, Mother and Son, Disney+’s The Artful Dodger and Thor: Love and Thunder have benefitted from the fund, which Screen Producers Australia says created “jobs and multiples of economic activity in in Sydney and regional areas of the state.”
Also impacted by the cuts are the Post Digital and Visual Effects and the Digital Games Development Rebate Program, both of which will see funding cut.
“This cut is a disaster for screen practitioners both here in NSW and beyond. It shows disappointing short-term thinking about the value of the screen industry”, said Screen Producers Australia (SPA) CEO Matthew Deaner.
Australia’s Labor government claims the cuts are necessary due to A$188M ($121M) being cut from the Department of Enterprise, Investment and Trade’s budget’s by the previous Coalition government just weeks before New South Wales state elections in March.
Deaner said: “To cut a fund that reportedly brings in A$20 for every dollar invested and creates thousands of jobs is hard to comprehend, especially when, after years of stagnation and setbacks, the sector had been so optimistic about its future prospects.”
Deaner said the action would “see this state missing out on the new investment