The Australian Film Commission (AFC) was an Australian government agency was founded in 1975 with a mandate to promote the creation and distribution of films in Australia as well as to preserve the country's film history. It also had a production arm responsible for production and commissioning of films for the government. It was superseded by Screen Australia from 1 July 2008.
The Australian Film Commission was established by the Whitlam government on 7 July 1975 as the successor to the Australian Film Development Corporation set up by the Gorton government.[1] In the first year of its existence, its budget was $6.5 million.[2] The AFC acted as a funding and development agency for the Australian film industry. With the Australian Film Commission Amendment Acts passed in 1980 and 2003, the AFC shifted focus onto funding and promoting Australian film both locally, and in international markets.[3]
The AFC was funded in part by the national government and in part from its return on investments in film production as well as interest on film development loans. It financially assisted film and television production and also produced films generally intended for government purposes, through its production arm, Film Australia,[4] previously known as the Commonwealth Film Unit. A Film Australia feature film for children, Let the Balloon Go, was released in 1976. The Commission generally covered Australian national and Indigenous identity through film and documentaries, and had developed the Documentary Development Fellowship scheme in 1984.[citation needed]
For 1979 to 1980, the Commission's budget was $10 million, and received $2.5 million from its investments.[2]
In 1998–99, Film Finance Corporation Australia was set up as a government-owned corporation and took over the major role of financing feature film and television production, with the AFC concentrating on the funding of development, marketing and research work for the media. Film Australia Limited became a separate entity.[citation needed]
On 1 July 2003, the Commission undertook the effect of the transfer of the National Film and Sound Archive's (NFSA, also known as ScreenSound Australia) contractual rights and obligations as enforced by the Australian Film Commission Amendment Act. The AFC introduced a "Directions" plan to guide operations of ScreenSound Australia, before it was disputed and revised in 2006 upon the change of government.[4] The merger between ScreenSound and the AFC was reversed in 2008, with the introduction of the Screen Australia Bill 2008.[5]
The Screen Australia Bill 2008 marked the creation of the new government film agency, Screen Australia, which merged the major government film bodies Film Finance Corporation Australia, Film Australia Limited, and the Australian Film Commission into a single body, albeit with slightly different functions, roles and financing methods. Screen Australia commenced operation in July 2008 and overtook the Commission's role supporting and investing in Australian film and other media.[citation needed]
The Commission merged with Australia's federal film agencies in 2008, bringing the cease in its operations.[citation needed]
Amalgamations
The Commission merged with other federal Australian film agencies and groups while it was active between 1975 and 2008.
2003: ScreenSound
In 2003, plans to reorganise the AFC emerged when ScreenSound Australia, otherwise known as the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), indicated new arrangements to board positions. The Commission was merged with ScreenSound under the Howard government which was speculated by news outlets as a move to undermine cultural industries in Australia. A campaign called "Save ScreenSound Australia" was initiated.[6]
The Australian Film Commission Amendment Act 2003 outlined the transfer of contractual rights and obligations under ScreenSound to the AFC to accommodate the reorganisation. This took effect on 1 July 2003.[3] In December 2003, the Commission revealed its Directions plan, introducing its proposals on the future of the NFSA.[7]
The merger introduced the National Film and Sound Archive Advisory Committee in late 2004 which succeeded the NFSA Advisory Council. The Committee included representatives of key stakeholders for the Archive and was established under the Directions plan to allow for communication between stakeholders and the Archive. The Committee had no directive powers in relation to the AFC Board and film events originally under the NFSA brand, such as the premier of ‘The Sentimental Bloke’ at the Sydney Film Festival 2004, were redirected under the Australian Film Commission’s brand.[7]
On 12 January 2006, Kim Dalton departed from his CEO position at the Commission to the head of television at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The shift introduced new operations and communications between the NFSA Advisory Committee and the AFC Board which acknowledged concerns on the overriding control of the AFC over the Archive. The Directions plan had received approximately 120 submissions from stakeholders with 90% being critical of its plans. The renegotiation amended concerns over the Archive’s branding and introduced a new plan on 10 July 2006, called the Independent statutory status for the National Film and Sound Archive.[7]
The NFSA Advisory Committee was in operation until May 2008.[7]
2008: Film Finance Corporation and Film Australia
In May 2007, plans for another amalgamation was prompted by the new Minister for the Arts, George Brandis. The Australian Federal Election in November 2007 saw a changeover of government to the Labor Party, but support legislation for the merge was approved on 23 March 2008.[7] On 20 February 2008,[8]Peter Garrett, the new Minister for Arts from the changeover, introduced the Screen Australia Bill 2008, which allowed the NFSA to move freely under its body as it was de-merged from the Commission.[9]
On 1 July 2008, the Australian Film Commission merged with the Film Finance Corporation and Film Australia Limited to form Screen Australia. As the main film agency financially supporting the Australian screen production industry, Screen Australia acts as the combined servicer of the three agencies. The amalgamation revised interests on Australian programs such as documentaries, and Screen Australia took over the AFC’s role in commissioning the documentary sector.[10] For example, the development and production of the National Interest Program documentaries, which were initially produced by Film Australia Ltd, resulted from the merger.[5]
The main functions of the Australian Film Commission were carried over by the Bill, outlining Screen Australia’s duties to financially invest in "film and television development, production and distribution activities." Screen Australia also took over the Commission’s role in supporting Australian content in films, focusing on programs with high levels of artistic and cultural qualities. Other functions included providing aid to Australian filmmakers, promoting Australian films both domestically and internationally at related film festivals, trade shows and industry markets, and supporting the development of screen culture in Australia.[5]
Film and media contribution
The Australian Film Commission as well as the Film Finance Corporation (FFC) were responsible for sustaining Australian culture through film.[11] The AFC was a leading analyst and collector of film data, and in particular, Australian audiovisual media aiming to preserve and foster the audiovisual production industry. It led opinion, outlook and policy regarding the audiovisual industry.[12]
The Commission covered Australian content, in which Australian national and Indigenous identity was preserved and represented through film. The AFC supported the production of Australian history as constructed by filmmakers through documentaries.[13] In 2000 Sally Riley was appointed head of the Indigenous Branch, which later became the Indigenous Department of Screen Australia. In both roles, she did much to develop the careers of Indigenous Australian creatives and other industry professionals.[14]
Whilst working closely with the NFSA, the Australian Film Commission financed the Archive's first major film reconstruction, of the 1927 film, For the Term of His Natural Life, in 1980.[3]
From the mid-1950s, with the rise of television, until the 1980s, documentary production of Australian life was supported by federal agencies such as the Commission. The AFC continued to support Australian documentaries until 2008, when Screen Australia was formed.[10] Screen Australia overtook the Commission's responsibilities in supporting films and television programs with Australian content, which were determined by the subject matter, location of production, nationalities of contributors to the making of the film, and potential to be significant Australian content, as outlined in the Screen Australia 2008 Bill.[5]
Operations in Australia
The Commission functioned as a producer, promoter, and distributor of Australian film. In the early 1970s, the Australian Film Development Corporation in conjunction with the Australian Film Commission administered grants and loans which sustained the production of films in Australia. The AFDC, turned AFC, invested $3,289,752 in feature production between 1972 and 1975.[15]
The Commission supported the Australian independent documentary sector. In 1984, the AFC initiated the Documentary Fellowship scheme with an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) supported pre-sale to mobilise independent documentaries.[10] In 1999, the Commission's Documentary Online Initiative would progress collaborations over the internet between traditional documentary filmmakers and interactive media producers.[12] The AFC recorded that the annual average production value of documentaries in Australia was approximately $62 million between 2005 and 2006. Until 1996, documentaries in Australia were defined as an information category and were reintroduced with a renewed quota of 10 hours a year from initial release, which was later increased to 20 hours in 2008.[10]
The AFC collaborated with ABC Online, and the radio station Triple J, to create the Stuff-Art website. Stuff-Art was devised to foster innovative and online film entertainment, encouraging participation from artists, filmmakers and interactive producers. In 1999, it won Telstra/Australian Financial Review Internet Award for the best entertainment website.[12]
In September 2001, the AFC directed investment into the program for the development of broadband content worth approximately $2.1 million. The Commission acted as a financial aid for cultural content in Australian broadband services and for the Productivity Commission whose concerns were on "developing Australian culture, children’s programming, or quality of information and entertainment."[11][16] The transfer of contractual rights of the National Sound and Film Archive to the Commission in 2003, allowed the AFC to use the Archive's brand under its name.[7]
In 2006, the Broadband Production Initiative (BPI) was introduced by the federal government. The scheme was funded with the assistance of ABC New Media, Digital services and the AFC, totalling approximately $4 million to promote the production of innovative, educational and technological media content and projects.[12]
By July 2008, the AFC published a new online film related database which allowed anyone access through a film "producer or director’s name, film title, subject matter, location filmed, production date and key education references."[18] The database, after the amalgamation in 2008, was expanded under Screen Australia and was called the Find a Film Search Database and later renamed The Screen Guide. The database also enabled users to locate "Australian-made feature films, documentaries, television dramas, and interactive resources" which were curated by Australians.[19]
Federal Government support
In the 1970s, the government assisted the film industry indirectly through tax exemptions and write-offs to private investors. Film bodies, such as the Australian Film Commission, were encouraged to increase overseas sales due to the tax shelter provided by a budget increase.[15]
Changes to the AFC Amendment Bill 1980 allowed the Commission for more flexibility in funding films under the rational program and Film Australia.[20] Funds regarding the promotion, distribution, or broadcasting of Australian programs, were also accommodated by the Bill.[citation needed]
The Commission was delegated to overcome costs which had little return on both government and private investments. Under the Bill, the Commission was able to appoint its own staff. Members of the AFC were appointed on part-time basis, and to ensure flexible and efficient day-to-day operation a general manager was elected.[20]
Upon the passing of the Australian Film Commission Amendment Act 2003, the Commission became legally responsible for the NFSA. In 2008, the AFC was then merged with two other film agencies, Film Finance Australia, and Film Australia Ltd, to form the current film agency of Australia, Screen Australia. The merge with the NFSA was reversed upon the passing of the Screen Australia Bill 2008.[1]
International activity
The Commission distributed and broadcast Australian film worldwide, namely in the United States and Europe. Australian independent documentary producers sold their work to the BBC and American PBS as they were unable to sell to Australian television networks. Notably, the Documentary Fellowship scheme the AFC developed in 1984 helped place Australian documentaries into timeslots for Australian television networks, as detailed in the Australian Content Inquiry Discussion Paper, 1987.[10]
Operations in the United States
Due to the lower valuation of the Australian dollar to the American dollar, American majors became interested in Australian films in the late 1970s. Investment in Australian film was financially attractive to American backers, and the Australian Film Commission, as well as other state film authorities, began to sell Australian films in the American market. The American market received Australian film with depictions of outback landscapes, and historical settings as impressions of Australia.[10]
In 1975, with assistance from the Australian Federal Government, the Australian Film Commission began to send Australian films and filmmakers to Cannes, France. Cannes is renowned for hosting annual international film festivals as of 1946. In 1978, the Commission’s marketing efforts in Cannes were criticised by David Stratton, a film critic and consultant, for the slogan "Our Product’s Got Great Legs" captioned under a photo of a woman’s legs.[15]
Listed on Screen Australia's Screen Guide, the online database of Australian film productions and co-productions, are 16 titles which the Australian Film Commission has contributed to either domestically in Australia, or internationally.[23]
Filmography
Year of Production Completion
Title
Film Type
Contribution
1976
Promised Woman
Feature
International Sales Contact
1976
Summer of Secrets
Feature
International Sales Contact
1982
Duet For Four
Feature
International Sales Contact
1984
One Night Stand
Feature
International Sales Contact
1985
The Boy Who Had Everything
Feature
International Sales Contact
1991
Uranus
Short film
Australian Sales Contact
1993
Australian Women’s Archival project
Documentary
International Sales Contact
1994
Microdocs
Documentary
International Sales Contact
1995
Eat My Shorts
TV drama
International Sales Contact
1995
Smile A Ton
Short film
Australian Sales Contact, International Sales Contact
1995
Tapeworm
Short film
Australian Sales Contact, International Sales Contact
1995
Trapped
Short film
Australian Sales Contact, International Sales Contact
The Australian Writers' Guild (AWG) is the professional association for Australian performance writers for film, television, radio, theatre, video and new media. The AWG was established in 1962. The AWG is a member of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.
Wrong Side of the Road is a 1981 low-budget feature film made in South Australia. It is distinctive for being one of the first attempts to bring modern Australian Aboriginal music to a non-Indigenous audience, featuring all-Aboriginal rock reggae bands No Fixed Address and Us Mob.
SBS independent (SBSi) operated as the commissioning house for Australia's multicultural public broadcaster, the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), between August 1994 and December 2007. It was instituted via the landmark "Creative Nation" cultural policy initiative released in October 1994 by the Keating government. The core purpose of the institution was to commission multicultural content from Australian independent film and television producers. At the end of December 2007, SBSi ceased to function as an administratively independent institution, and was merged with the SBS Content and Online Division.
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national collection of film, television, sound, radio, video games, new media, and related documents and artefacts. The collection ranges from works created in the late nineteenth century when the recorded sound and film industries were in their infancy, to those made in the present day.
South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) is a South Australian Government statutory corporation established in 1972 to engage in film production and promote the film industry, located in Adelaide, South Australia. The Adelaide Studios are managed by the South Australian Film Corporation for the use of the South Australian film industry.
Film Australia was a company established by the Government of Australia to produce films about Australia in 1973. Its predecessors were the Cinema and Photographic Branch (1913–38), the Australian National Film Board, and the Commonwealth Film Unit (1956–72). Film Australia became Film Australia Limited in 1988 and was consolidated into Screen Australia in 2008.
The Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC) was the government agency responsible for funding commercial productions of Australian film, documentary, and television from 1988 to 2008. Unlike other publicly funded organisations responsible for financing media production in Australia, the FFC operated as a commercially oriented funding agency, backing projects with the intention of recouping part of its funding through investment. The organisation was responsible for financing several notable Australian feature films, among them Strictly Ballroom (1992), Muriel's Wedding (1994) and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994). During its lifetime, the FFC supported 248 features with a total investment of A$662 million. In 2008, the FFC was succeeded by Screen Australia, which merged the similar film financing bodies operated by the Australian government.
Film and TV financing in Australia refers to government assistance to TV and cinema in Australia. Over the past 30 years, government assistance has involved a mixture of government support, distributor/ broadcaster involvement and private investment. To a significant extent, government policies have shaped the form and scale of financing.
Screen Australia is the Australian Federal Government's key funding body for the Australian screen production industry, created under the Screen Australia Act 2008. From 1 July 2008 Screen Australia took over the functions of its predecessor agencies the Australian Film Commission (AFC), the Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC) and Film Australia Limited.
An international film or television co-production is a production made by production companies in different countries. This note focuses on ‘official’ Australian co-productions, that is, co-productions that meet the requirements for benefits under the Australian Official Co-Production Program. It looks at trends in production, the potential impact of recent changes to film funding, and what lies ahead for Australia's involvement in co-production.
Screen NSW, formerly known as the New South Wales Film and Television Office, or FTO, and before that the New South Wales Film Corporation, is a brand name that is part of Create NSW, an agency of the Government of New South Wales that is responsible for supporting and promoting the arts, artists and the various cultural bodies within the state of New South Wales in Australia. Screen NSW assists, promotes and strengthens the screen industry in the state of New South Wales. It was previously an agency in its own right, but since 1 April 2017 has been part of Create NSW. The name "Screen NSW" ceased to exist within Create NSW between that date and September 2019, when a restructure resurrected the brand. As of July 2022, Kyas Hepworth is the Head of Screen NSW.
SCREEN FOREVER, formerly SPAA Conference, is an annual three-day conference for film industry professionals held in Australia by Screen Producers Australia.
VicScreen, formerly known as Film Victoria, is the Victorian Government’s creative and economic screen development agency. It functions behind the scenes, supporting professionals, infrastructure, projects and events – elevating Victoria, Australia as a global screen destination.
The National Screen Institute – Canada is a non-profit organization headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The organization describes itself as "Serving content creators across Canada to tell unforgettable stories through industry-informed training and mentoring."
Blackfella Films is a Sydney-based documentary and narrative production company, founded in 1992 by Rachel Perkins. The company produces distinctive Australian short and feature-length content for film and television with a particular focus on Aboriginal Australian stories. Its productions have included the documentary series First Australians, the documentary The Tall Man, the television film Mabo, and the TV series Redfern Now.
The Australian Directors' Guild (ADG) is an industry guild representing the interests of film, television, commercials and digital media directors, including documentary makers and animators, throughout Australia. With its headquarters in Sydney, the ADG has branches in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia. As of 2022 the president of ADG is Rowan Woods.
Raymond Charles Argall is best known as a cinematographer and director for both film and television. He has also worked as an editor. His multi-award-winning feature film Return Home (1990) is regarded by many critics as an Australian cinema classic. Argall served on the board of the Australian Directors Guild (ADG) for sixteen years, holding the position of president from 2006 to 2015 and secretary from 2015 to 2017. In 2016, Argall launched a business restoring archival films through his production company Piccolo Films. In 2018 the ADG presented him with its prestigious Cecil Holmes Award.
Trisha Morton-Thomas, also known as Patricia Morton-Thomas, is an Anmatyerr woman born in the Northern Territory of Australia. She is a writer, producer, director and actor who has worked in the Australian film industry since 1998 when she appeared in Radiance, the first feature film by director Rachel Perkins.
Sally Riley is an Australian filmmaker, writer, producer and media executive, as of 2021 Head of Scripted Production at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
1 2 David Stratton, The Last New Wave: The Australian Film Revival, Angus & Robertson, 1980 p16
1 2 3 Edmondson, Ray (November 2004). "In the Agora. What's a nice archive like you doing in a place like this? [Article is a revised version of a paper presented at the conference The Future of the Archive (2004: Canberra).]". Archives and Manuscripts. 32 (2): 178–190.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Edmondson, Ray (2011). "The National Film and Sound Archive and Australian Film Commission: The End of the Affair". Archives and Manuscripts. 39 (2): 151–64.
1 2 Goggin, G. (2001). "Regulating for Content on the Internet: Meeting Cultural and Social Objectives for Broadband". Media International Australia, Incorporating Culture & Policy. 101: 19–31. doi:10.1177/1329878X0110100105. S2CID112007493.
↑ Bertrand, I. (1984). "National identity/national history/national film: the Australian experience". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. iv(2) (2): 179–188. doi:10.1080/01439688400260171.
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