Women filmmakers call for end to the AACTAs sausage party

December 17th 2016

sausage aacta

“The AACTA selection process is done to maintain the status quo which is generally older white dudes.”

Last week’s Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards played host to an unexpected red carpet surprise.

There wasn’t a run-of-the-mill Aussie awards prank by a certain Hamish and/or Andy, and/or Matt and/or Alex, but instead members from Women in Film and Television NSW turned up dressed as…sausages.

They staged a protest at the awards, more commonly known as the AACTAs, wearing sausage costumes to highlight the under representation of women in the TV and film industries.

Backchat invited WIFT founder Sophie Mathisen and fellow protesters Megan Riakos and Bronte Jovevski into the studio to help explain their sausage-based protest.

The WIFT protesters pointed to a number of stats showing the male dominance of the industry, and the lack of gender diversity in film and TV.

“70% of male producers in the film industry work with 1 key female creative and 40% work with no females whatsoever.

“Meanwhile, female-made films make 63% less theatrical distribution.

“The AACTA selection process is done to maintain the status quo which is generally older white dudes.”

They also questioned the way the awards skewed towards Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge, which they accused of “not even fulfilling the entry provisions of the AACTAs.”

If you missed it the first time around, you can relive the AACTA Awards sausage party protest below.


To encourage the Academy to respond to the call for more gender diversity, WIFT NSW are encouraging people to #RoastTheAACTAs.

 

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Contributor

Oscar is Backchat‘s digital producer.

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