Screen Ireland Six Point Plan on Gender Equality

Screen Ireland (SI) is committed to supporting and facilitating an increase in the level of female writers, producers and directors in line with its Six Point Plan on Gender Equality. 2019 built on the ongoing efforts to support increased female participation for the last number of years and the aim is that 2020 will see a further increase. The POV Production and Training Scheme for female talent is aimed at delivering on Screen Ireland's commitment to achieving 50/50 gender parity within the Irish screen industries both in front of and behind the camera. This scheme provides funding and training specifically for female initiated and driven films. In 2020, 4 POV projects will go into production. Screen Ireland will continue to offer enhanced production funding for female initiated and driven feature films. 15 projects have been selected from 195 applications for the Spotlight scheme. Out of these projects, 53% have female writers attached. This scheme was specifically targeted at diverse and underrepresented voices and this is reflected in the choice of projects.
Linking funding decisions to greater gender equality is already paying dividends and provides a positive model to replicate in other areas of strategic importance to the industry. In order to incentivise and reward positive change and support the industry in a continued and sustained era of growth, it is the intention of Screen Ireland to develop funding criteria for productions based on the following guiding principles; equality, diversity and inclusion, career & skills development, dignity in the workplace, and climate and sustainability.
Screen Ireland have created several new schemes to help production companies during the Covid-19 crisis. Within the applications, producers are asked to supply a statement of diversity, inclusion, and gender to emphasise the importance of working with a diverse team.