High drama in the screen industry as production tops $1.9bn

Popular TV series such as Nine Perfect Strangers have helped push local production spending to record levels.

Actors Ryan Corr, Jessica De Gouw and Todd Lasance on the set of The Secrets She Keeps with director Jen Leacey and producer Helen Bowden. Picture: Jane Dempster

Australian drama production is officially in boom-time, with major films including Chris Hemsworth’s Thor: Love and Thunder and series such as Nine Perfect Strangers with Nicole Kidman pushing total expenditure to a record level.

Production companies spent more than $1.9bn on screen drama in Australia last financial year – almost double the previous year’s total expenditure – including budgets for TV series, online drama and Hollywood blockbusters.

While only 10 major international productions were made here last year, total foreign production and post-production was worth just over $1bn.

Australian production reached a record spend of $874m, including titles such as cartoon favourite Bluey, drama series The Newsreader and local features including Wyrmwood: Apocalypse and Baz Luhrmann’s untitled film about Elvis Presley.

Graeme Mason, chief executive of Screen Australia which issued the report, said the record was due to “insatiable demand for content around the world, and the enormous production spend”.

He said the local industry had shown its resilience in the face of the pandemic, and “got going again when just about everyone else was still shut”.

The most recent lockdowns in Sydney and Melbourne may lead to a slightly softer result this year, Mason said, but major productions were in the pipeline.

In north Sydney, a film shoot was under way on Tuesday for the second series of The Secrets She Keeps, a TV thriller that has been a hit for Network 10, BBC1 in Britain and other networks.

Producer Helen Bowden of Lingo Pictures said the budget of about $9m was typical for a drama series of the scale; the production employed about 80 people.

Lingo Pictures was able to take advantage of the producer tax offset available for local TV drama, raised from 20 per cent to 30 per cent after the federal parliament last week approved the increase.

“Demand is incredibly high because people are watching a lot of TV,” Bowden said. “They were already watching a lot of TV, and then we had the pandemic.”

The Australian screen industry will celebrate the year’s best feature films and TV series at the AACTA Awards in Sydney on Wednesday.