Australia Won the Work. Now it’s Time to Staff the Books.
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Australia’s screen industry has spent the pastseveralyears proving it can win the work. International studios keep choosing Australian locations, the incentive framework is among the most competitive in the world, and local production volume hasgrownaccordingly.Attracting the business, though, is only halfofthe equation. A government-commissioned study released this year points to a quiet problem sitting underneath all that momentum: thescreenindustryneeds to ensureithas enoughskilled talenttocontinueservicingtheexpandingsector.
ճcommissioned by Screen Australia and conducted by Olsberg SPI, confirmed Australia’s status as a world-class, globally trusted production hub,whileidentifyingfour structural pressure points that could constrain that growth: limited business scalability, persistent skills gaps, unclear career progression and infrastructure constraints.
Within the reportis a finding thatdeservesthe attention of every financial controller and production accountant working across Australian and New Zealand productions: among below-the-line roles, Production Accountant sits in the top five hardest-to-fill positions, alongside Line Producer, Location Manager, Production Coordinator and Production Manager.
Warning Signsin the Data
The first warning signin the reportis structural. PICA points out that local production companies are often small and project-based, built to deliver one show at a time, not scalethefinance function across a growing slate of concurrent productions.In practice, that means the same finance teams delivering domestic slates are increasingly expected to manage multi-territory studio compliance, co-financing structures and tighter reporting cadences — without a proportional increase in headcount or in the training available to prepare them for it.
For an industry that measures its success in production volume and studio confidence, a finance function that can’t scale is a real constraint, not an abstractproblem.PICArecommends targeted business development training, stronger links between academia and industry, and continuous upskilling as the way through.
The second thread in the data is arguably more concerning for anyone managing a finance team long-term.PICA found unclear career progression and seniority gaps driven by high attrition and experienced cohorts ageing out of the workforce.For production accounting specifically, that’s a pipeline problem: the professionals who know how to run a compliant, studio-grade set of books are not being replaced at the rate they’re leavingthe industry.
“Australia has done the hard work of becoming a trusted, world-class production destination,” said Liana Dubois, Managing Director,Australia and New Zealandat鶹ֱ(EP). “But being chosen by global studios and beingreadyfor the scale that comes with it are two different things. PICA has given the industry hard evidence of a gap we’ve been watching build for some time — and it’s a gap in people and capability, not just tools.”
Why Tools Alone Won’t Close the Gap
It’s tempting to treat this as a software problem — find a better platform and the capacity issue resolves itself. It doesn’t. A production accountant under-supported by training is under-supported regardless of which system sits on their desktop.Anational skills shortfall isn’t solved by a product featurealone.
PICA’s own recommendations make this explicit: the fix is training optimisation — micro-credentials, continuous upskilling, and closing the gap between industry and education — delivered alongside better infrastructure.The technology matters, but only as the platform that lets an already-stretched workforce work faster and with fewer errors, not as a replacement for the expertise itself.
Responding to the Shortage:Taking Enablement to Where the Work Happens
It’s this combination that 鶹ֱ is building its response around. Later this year,EPwill launch an education and enablementprogramfor production accountants and financial controllers across Australia and New Zealand, built aroundcraft expertise and underpinned bySmartAccounting, EP’s accounting platform,andSmartPO, EP’spurchase order and payables solution.
The series, titledOn Location:SmartProduction FinanceManagement,isdesigned less as a product demonstration and more as a practical, hands-on training in the workflows PICA identifies as under strain — scaling a finance function across concurrent productions, managing studio-grade compliance and reporting, andbuilding the kind of structured, transferable skill set that keeps experienced production accountants in the industry, where they are needed.
“This isn’t about which system you’re on today,” saidJill Hewitt, 鶹ֱ’ Director of Industry Education and Enablement. “It’s about making sure the people running production finance inAustralia and New Zealandhave somewhere to build the skills the industry needs, close to where they already work. If we wait for the education system to catch up on its own, we’ll still be having this conversation in five years.We areactively contributing toindustry education via direct interactions with those doing the work,educational institutions like AFTRS and via our globalEP Academy. ճOn Locationseries is anaturalnextstep to expand our impact.”
On Location: SmartProduction Finance Managementwill visit key productionstates through the remainder of 2026, with sessions open to production accountants and financial controllers regardless of their current software environment. Details,including sessiondates, locations andhow toregister,will follow in the coming weeks.
Australia has proven it can attractinternational production. The next test is whether the people managing the money behind it have the training, tools and career pathway to keep pacewith industry growth. 鶹ֱ intends to be part of closing that gap.
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