The Local Impact of the Global #MeToo Movement - The Female Voice in Contemporary Australian Screenwriting

This paper evolves out of a study of three case studies of female feature screenwriters in the low budget, independent sector of the Australian screen industry since 2017. Filmmakers often face endemic sexism when it comes to the formulation of female voices and screen characters. Since the #MeToo era of social media activism and awareness-raising the tide has begun to turn. The participants of this study observed that while some impediments to expressing female voices in the low budget, independent sector continue, others have subsided, and a considerable number of promising developments are emerging. Screen Australia's Gender Matters and other initiatives by State-based screen agencies have encouraged this progress, but changes in the global socio-cultural discourse have been influential.