Screen Australia Gender Data: Notes on Method

Gender Matters KPI data

Data is based on information in Screen Australia funding applications. Applicants nominate the gender of writer, producer, director and other roles.
From 2023/24, Screen Australia updated the gender options in applications to align with the most recent guidance from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The gender options are:

Only writer, producer and director roles are counted. Credits such as ‘creative producer’ are evaluated.
Individuals that serve in multiple roles are counted for each role: e.g. a writer/director would be counted once as a writer and once as a director.
Screen Australia publishes ‘finer cuts’ of the data by splitting the overall KPI result into eight funding categories:

The number of approved titles in a funding category varies. One or two funding decisions can significantly impact smaller categories.
First Nations titles are included across all eight funding categories.
All factual projects, including titles funded by the Online and First Nations departments, are categorised as ‘Documentary’. Producer Equity Program (PEP) documentary projects are excluded as they do not undergo creative assessment.
Drama applications are generally sorted by funding program.
Decisions to approve or decline funding are counted. Decisions to advance a title to a further stage of assessment are not counted. Note, some titles have multiple funding decisions in a single year. Variations to funding for the same activity, such as production funding variations, are not counted.
Data includes Screen Australia initiatives administered by third parties, where data is available.
Some projects, such as anthologies, involve larger numbers of creative roles.
The application dataset is more expansive than the 2015 report Gender Matters: Women in the Australian Screen Industry, and is not directly comparable.

Games development data is not included in the current Gender Matters KPI.
Key roles are designated by applicants. Due to the large variety of roles in games development, Screen Australia evaluates key roles and categorises them as: ‘Creative' and/or 'Business' and/or ‘Technical’.

Protagonist data is not included in the current Gender Matters KPI.
Protagonists are measured for drama only (not documentary).
Data is based on information available at time of application. Applicants were provided with a definition of Protagonist. Protagonists were then verified by application assessors.
Sketch comedies with large numbers of non-recurring characters are excluded.
Individuals that serve in multiple roles are counted for each role.
Data is based on the information processed in Screen Australia’s application database.

Industry-wide data is not included in the Gender Matters KPI.
Data includes titles entering production in Australia in a financial year.
Data is based on information provided to Screen Australia by agencies, broadcasters and producers, and some publicly-sourced information. There is a one-year lag for industry-wide data (compared to Screen Australia application data).
Data is based on titles analysed by Screen Australia for drama and documentary production statistics.

Screen Australia tracks drama titles (feature, series, serials, mini-series, single-episodes and telemovies) with total durations over 30 minutes.
Documentary titles tracked include single or series titles over 15 minutes in duration. The roles of writer, director and producer are not always available or applicable, particularly for externally sourced documentary titles.

Industry-wide data is indicative only, as some titles do not provide or publish credits/information. Data is subject to revision.
In 2023, Screen Australia updated the drama and documentary production surveys so that the agency may track gender data for certain below-the-line roles.