Australia's screen sector is thriving thanks to record funding from the Morrison Government of more than $530 million in 2020-21, supporting thousands of local jobs.
Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts, the Hon Paul Fletcher MP, said the Government acted quickly when COVID struck to support the viability and expansion of Australia's world-class screen sector.
"Australia is home to writers, directors, producers, actors and highly skilled crew who are amongst the world's best. That's why in 2020-21, we provided more than $530 million to enable the screen sector to continue employing thousands of Australians," Minister Fletcher said.
"A majority of our support for the screen sector goes towards local Australian productions telling Australian stories - playing a huge part in shaping our country's cultural identity."
"Our record funding will enable the screen sector to maximise production opportunities, adapt to the ongoing impacts of the pandemic, to increase high-quality local content on our screens, and to remain competitive as the global demand for digital and subscription services increases."
The 2020-21 funding is an increase of 28 per cent from the previous year and includes:
- More than $323 million to support the development and production of Australian local content through Screen Australia, Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF), Producer Offset and Post Digital and Visual Effects (PDV) Offset.
- The $50 million Temporary Interruption Fund (TIF), providing the certainty that Australian productions needed to secure financing, with 67 productions supported for coverage so far, supporting on average 305 people and 158 businesses on each production.
- More than $157 million invested in attracting large budget international productions to Australia to support our world-class production and VFX sector through the Location Incentive, Location Offset and PDV Offset.
In 2020-21 Screen Australia and ACTF supported more than 160 Australian projects with development funding and more than 130 with funding to undertake production. The Producer and PDV offsets supported 213 Australian children's drama and documentary and entertainment productions in 2020-21.
Minister Fletcher said the Government would build on 2020-21's record level of support in 2021-22, with targeted funds to continue flowing to the screen sector.
"We're rolling out additional funding of more than $50 million to Screen Australia and the Australian Children's Television Foundation in 2021-22 and 2022-23, to support the creation of quality Australian screen content, creating more local screen jobs and showcasing our best home-grown talent."
To date, 23 productions have been attracted to Australia through the Morrison Government's highly successful Location Incentive program. These productions are expected to generate around $1.72 billion of expenditure and are importantly creating a sustained pipeline of work for Australians, providing more than 15,800 jobs for local cast and crew, and using the services of more than 15,200 Australian businesses.
