Asian creatives and female directors continue to be under-represented in locally made screen content, according to new research by NZ On Air.
NZ On Air surveyed 178 publicly funded screen projects for its 2021 Diversity Report, gathering data on the ethnic diversity and gender of key personnel, and the regional spread of production companies.
While the numbers of Pākehā, Māori and Pacific Peoples working in key creative roles on funded screen projects aligned with Statistics NZ population ethnicity data, Asian creatives were notably under-represented across directing, producing and writing roles.
Women make up 61% of producing roles and account for 48.8% of writers, but lag behind their male counterparts in directing drama, documentary and children’s programming. Nearly 43% (42.7%) of directors identify as female, compared to 57.8% male.