Head Count 2019/20
The following analysis shows the representation of genders across the pool of creatives who have been granted development or production funding from the NZFC during the 2019/20 financial year. Capturing gender identity data is important as it allows the NZFC to measure and report on the continued efforts toward establishing gender equality within New Zealand’s screen industry.
In this report we use the terms female, male and gender diverse. These terms are used in line with the Stats NZ Classification Standards definition of gender identity. This information has been collected from filmmakers as part of the application process and is requested from filmmakers attached to key creative roles (director, producer and writer). For the purpose of this analysis, all references to gender relate to gender identity and all references to key creative roles relates to director, producer and writer roles only.
Figures and graphs on this page have been calculated using the Head Count Method. This allows the NZFC to answer questions such as, ‘what proportion of directors supported through development and/or production initiatives were female?’ To fully understand the balance of genders across projects funded by the NZFC, the Head Count Method needs to be examined in isolation as well as in conjunction with the Project Count Method. For more detail about either of these methodologies or for further definitions of gender identity, please refer to the About this Data section of the Data Room.
Gender Diversity Across Development and Production
Application and Approval Volumes from 2019/20
An area of particular interest to the NZFC is identifying if there is a shortfall in applications with female creatives attached in key creative roles. When looking at the application and approval data from the 2019/20 financial year, projects with female creatives are considered equally from the pool of applications. It is pleasing to see little disparity between male and female creatives when considering those applications approved development or production funding. In the period, there were female creatives in 47% of key creative roles and male creatives in 48% of key creative roles. 1% of the creatives identified as gender diverse and the remaining creatives chose not to disclose their gender.
The graph below shows a breakdown of these figures and compares the distribution of female creatives separately across development and production initiatives. This highlights another area of focus for the NZFC, which is understanding how projects with female creatives transition from development and into production, and the NZFC’s role in supporting the movement of such projects through the developmental pipeline.
Representation of Female Creatives Across the Creative Pool (2019/20)
When comparing development and production initiatives individually, female creatives are represented across applications for both types of funding. Focusing on projects that applied for development funding, female creatives represent 44% of key creative roles attached to these projects. This increases to 46% when considering those projects that are approved for development funding (N = 2063 creatives attached to applications, 467 creatives attached to approved projects).
The representation of female creatives among production financing applications and approvals follows a similar trend to that of development funding. Female creatives account for 43% of key creatives attached to production funding applications. When comparing this figure to those applications that are subsequently approved, this figure jumps to 51%, exceeding the NZFC's target of 45% (N = 183 creatives attached to applications, 81 creatives attached to approved projects).
Gender Diversity Across Key Creative Roles
As part of the NZFC’s ongoing commitment to ensuring female creatives are well represented across the creative pool of filmmakers, it is also important to ensure female creatives are equally represented across the different key creative roles (director, producer, writer). Measuring the distribution of female creatives across the three key creative roles, provides visibility of how many projects are led or written by females and allows analysis of how these projects perform as they move through the pipeline from development and into production.
Focusing attention on those projects with approved development funding in the 2019/20 financial year, female creatives are well represented across producer roles and represent 50% of creatives attached in these roles. Historically, female creatives have had a significant presence across producer roles so it is with little surprise that we see this figure exceeding our target. Conversely, the proportion of female directors and female writers is slightly below the NZFC's target of 45% and represent 41% and 43% respectively.
Shifting attention towards projects with approved production funding in the 2019/20 financial year, we see that again female creatives are well represented in producer roles (68%). The proportion of female creatives attached to writer roles is similar to development at 43%. The largest disparity between male and female creatives is evident in director roles. Female directors account for 34% of creatives and this compares to males who represent 56% of directors. This figure is driven by a lower proportion of applications with female directors (41%) coupled with a smaller creative pool. As it is important that the NZFC supports female led projects, this is an area which will need ongoing attention.
The following table is a tabulated version of the graph above but it also includes application figures for comparison. When looking across roles attached to projects approved funding above, you will see in the table below that the biggest disparities between men and women are also visible in the wider application pool. This is because the projects that the NZFC approves are dependent on the applications received so this will continue to be a key driver of these figures.
Gender Comparison Across Project Types
Proportion of Key Creative Roles Represented by Female Creatives (2019/20)
Gender Diverse Creatives
The NZFC welcomes applications from gender diverse creatives and this group currently accounts for 1.3% of creatives attached to projects applying for funding from the NZFC. Stats NZ has not released data about the prevalence of people who identify as gender diverse among the general population, so it is difficult to ascertain whether this group is underrepresented in the NZFC’s application pool. However, it is the duty of the NZFC to continue ensuring that people of all demographic backgrounds are encouraged to apply for funding from the NZFC.