What is it like to be a 12-year-old girl growing up in Australia today? ABC and Screen Australia have partnered on an exciting new funding program to invite the next generation of Australian female content makers to help them find out.
The ‘Girls’ season will broadcast in October 2017 around International Day of the Girl, and aims to fund up to five individuals or teams to make a stand alone TV episode that reflects and captures life of Australian girls.
The brief for each creative team is to imagine the episode is like an open letter to their 12-year-old self that explores the hopes, the dreams, the challenges, the hardships and the belly laughs that drive today’s girls. Specifically, to help the audience make sense of the broader global issues around body image, gender stereotypes, pay gaps, gender language and careers they could have in STEM subjects. How can your idea help today’s girls navigate the scary years ahead of being a teenager?
The episode can be in any form of choice – sketch comedy, martial arts genre, factual, scripted comedy or drama and must be appropriate content for 8-12-year-old audiences.
The successful applicants will be given up to $80,000 each to create an episode of approximately 20 minutes’ duration that appeals to ABC ME audiences (8-12years). The filmmakers will be mentored by experienced female producers and receive editorial guidance from ABC Commissioning Editors Libbie Doherty and Jan Stradling and Screen Australia’s Senior Development Executive Nerida Moore.
“ABC is thrilled to be partnering with Screen Australia on this tremendous proposition. It’s a career-changing opportunity for new and diverse female content makers to showcase their talent and build their development and production skills resulting in real content,” says Michael Carrington, ABC Head of Children’s and Education.
Nerida Moore, Senior Development Executive at Screen Australia said: “Although Gender Matters was a game changer for Screen Australia and the industry, we are constantly looking for new opportunities to progress towards our target of achieving gender equity in our production funding. The ‘Girls’ season was a perfect fit for this reason. It will provide talented emerging female storytellers with an avenue to create exciting new content, a significant onscreen credit, and a chance to develop a relationship with the ABC.”
The ‘Girls’ season is part of the ABC’s Corporate Plan to contribute to the diversity, quality and innovation of the Australian film and television industry as well as Screen Australia’s target to achieving gender equity.
Applications open on International Women’s Day, Wednesday March 8, and is open to females aged 18 years and older, however younger applicants will be considered. Applications close on Thursday April 13, 2017.
The ‘Girls’ season is set to premiere on ABC ME, the ABC ME app and ABC iview in October to celebrate the International Day of the Girl.
