Chris Hemsworth film Furiosa pushes Australian screen industry to record year
Demand for Australian actors, crews and studios has pushed film expenditure to a record high, but indie projects are feeling the pinch.
Film producers Kristina Ceyton and Mitch Stanley have seen costs spiral on their feature film The Moogai, as high demand for production crews and facilities pushes up production costs.
Ceyton and Stanley are producing the feature by Indigenous writer and director Jon Bell, a horror story involving a young couple and their first child, and an evil spirit or “moogai” that evokes the trauma of the Stolen Generations. Featuring Meyne Wyatt and Shari Sebbens, the production is half-way through a 28-day shoot in Sydney and central-west NSW, with a budget of $5m to $7m.
“Shooting in Sydney is very expensive,” says Ceyton, of Causeway Films. “It’s been a challenge to get crews, to get equipment, to get trucks, the competition for cameras has been extremely high. With fuel costs going up, it does spiral upwards quite significantly. It is a big challenge for us.”
Inflationary pressure on the screen production industry has helped push total expenditure to a new record, reaching $2.29bn in the year to June.
Screen Australia’s annual Drama Report, released on Thursday, shows that while the number of titles in production was largely unchanged from the previous year, total spending increased by $350m, from $1.94bn in 2020-21.
It was also a record year for expenditure on Australian titles, which reached $1.51bn, or 66 per cent of the total spend.
Screen Australia chief executive Graeme Mason says the cost increase reflects the demand for Australian actors, creatives, crews and facilities.
“It is tougher to get shows up, because there is so much content being made,” he says. “So to cut through, you’re spending more money … We have a lot of people wanting to use our facilities, local and inbound, and there is a finite amount of it.”
Audiences also expect high production values, he adds, and locally made drama has to compete with offerings on the global streaming platforms.
“It isn’t the old days where you might have forgiven an Australian movie because it’s a good little Australian show,” he says.
“When you’re watching an amazing show from America or England, the contrast is too great. Audiences now expect the best.”
The Screen Australia report underscores the profound structural changes in the production sector.
Expenditure on Australian-made feature films increased from $495m last year to $786m across 24 titles, driven by high-profile projects such as George Miller’s Mad Max spin-off Furiosa, with Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth.
But small Australian features, made for less than $1m, are becoming rare, and the overall number of Australian features being produced is in decline.
Mason says a spike in spending by subscription TV and streaming platforms reflects the entry into the Australian market by the likes of Amazon Prime Video and Disney+, which are keen to establish market share.
“What you are seeing is new entrants trying to make their mark,” he says.
“They are all jostling a little bit. In every local market, and especially in Australia, we like seeing our own stories on screen. What I’d love to see is that continue, so it’s not just a splash the first day (the streamers) arrive in town.”
Screen Australia has made a submission to deliberations on the national cultural policy, which Arts Minister Tony Burke says is likely to include some obligation on the global streaming platforms to show Australian content.
Mason says Screen Australia supports such a provision, but has not recommended a quota level.
“We don’t put a number, but we have definitely said we would like to see a provision,” he says. “I really want to see more people operating in the kids’ space. Bluey is the No.1 kids’ show in the world. It’s essential for Australian kids to grow up and see themselves in a range of places, across all platforms.”