Telefilm created a Gender Parity Working Group comprised on key industry partners and stakeholders. This body provides a feedback loop for our actions, and action plan.
Telefilm began implementing its five-step action plan to reach gender parity by 2020. The plan is:
1) Encourage a diversity of projects: Telefilm encourages all producers to submit projects that reflect the diversity and inclusivity of Canada's population.
2) Evaluation of projects: The production evaluation language is clear in indicating the gender parity priority. Our guidelines and communications to the industry underline that, for projects of equal quality, Telefilm will prioritize the projects whose key creatives reflect diversity of the country in terms of gender, as well as Indigenous communities or cultural diversity
3) Transparency and reporting: Telefilm continues to respect government privacy laws. However, in order to regularly report back to the industry, other means of data reporting were created. Aggregate data is collected via a voluntary questionnaire at the application stage, which will identify key creative members of the team (director, writer, producer). This questionnaire also addresses questions regarding if members are from Indigenous communities.
4) Continued targeted promotion of female talent to raise their professional profile and market appeal (e.g. St. John's International Women's Film Festival, Birks Diamond Tribute, the Hot Docs' Don Haig Award Pay It Forward Prize, and many other initiatives). In addition, Telefilm will continue to promote all talent in its general promotional activities, and does so through the lens of inclusivity (e.g. at red carpets, delegations, conference panels, press, etc.)
5) Continued support of the conversation on gender parity via research and professional development initiatives (e.g. Five in Focus, Women in the Director's Chair, Women in Film & Television, Women in View--2 x More, CMPA study Women & Leadership: A study of global policies and programs to advance gender parity in the screen-based industries)
There is a greater presence of parity in the Telefilm pipeline in the three key creative roles. In 2018-19 circa 67% of projects had at least one woman in a key creative role (95 projects in 18-19, up from 83 projects in 17-18) and 45% had at least two women in key creative roles (Volume).
* In 2018-19 there was an increase in funding for all three key roles, both in dollars and percentage;
* Parity zone was reached for women producers.
Telefilm's commitment is for both volume and dollars, and by budget level. Detailed budget breakdowns are available on the Telefilm website.
| Name of partner | Type of entity |
|---|---|
Telefilm works with the support and cooperation of key clients (e.g. producers).
| Public Sector
|
Progress and improvement is being made in achieving greater parity in the feature film pipeline.