MOVIES PLAY RIGHT DIRECTION FOR WOMEN

actor Rachel Griffiths is on a mission to get more women behind the camera, with a $ 100,000 incentive to increase the number of female directors.

The $ 100,000 will go towards up to four TV drama projects. “It is inarguable that our film industry has had a better record than our TV culture in promoting diverse perspectives on female experience,” Griffiths said. She praised Screen Australia’s Gender Matters plan, unveiled in 2015, which also promotes female- driven projects, and said she had noticed a difference in how women are being represented on screen.

“It’s so exciting to finally see Australian TV characters recently move beyond the typical tropes of likeable, f*** able, adorable to embrace more complex depictions of female experience with Mystery Road, Wentworth, Hanging Rock, Dead Lucky, Top of the Lake and Redfern Now,” she said. Women on screens are often “underwritten and under- observed”, she said. “Often in television we’re used by lazy writers and producers who can think of nothing more interesting this week than let’s have her have sex with ‘ X’ or have her discover she’s a lesbian for an episode.”

Griffiths is working on her directorial debut on Australian film Ride Like A Girl, based on the life story of jockey Michelle Payne, and starring Teresa Palmer and Sam Neil.

Applications are open until August 5 for one- hour TV dramas with a female director and at least one other female as part of the NSW- based key creative team.