Screen agencies as cultural intermediaries: Delivering gender equality in the film and television sectors?

Noonan, Caitriona ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0202-7728 and Brock, Maria ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9615-5597 2023. Screen agencies as cultural intermediaries: Delivering gender equality in the film and television sectors? European Journal of Cultural Studies 26 (3) , pp. 408-427. 10.1177/13675494221134342

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Abstract

This article examines the role of national screen agencies in the realisation of an equitable screen sector. Publicly funded screen agencies like Ffilm Cymru Wales, Screen Ireland, Det Danske Filminstitut (Danish Film Institute) and Hrvatski Audiovizualni Centar (Croatian Audiovisual Centre) directly shape the sector, both on screen and behind the camera. Using interviews with senior decision-makers within several European screen agencies, we critically analyse the logics and practices of these cultural intermediaries in relation to gender equality. We chart how the issue is mediated by screen agencies, including their (in)actions. Alongside formal measures, we observe some staff working in quotidian ways to deliver change through positively leveraging their relationships with the sector. Our research highlights that while most of sampled agencies advocate for gender equality, few recognise ethnicity, socioeconomics, disability or age in their larger policy frameworks, and therefore, questions of intersectionality are rarely addressed formally in institutional approaches. We conclude that for screen agencies to become effective intermediaries for equality, a paradigmatic shift in their logics and working practices would be required. However, this would only represent a first step as wider policy and industrial reform is necessary to redress the exclusionary frames of the screen sector.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Journalism, Media and Culture
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
ISSN:	1367-5494
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	18 October 2022
Date of Acceptance:	5 October 2022
Last Modified:	06 Jul 2023 18:14
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/153481

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