It's a tough industry to break into and it's even tougher for women.
But a funding boost is giving 58 women an opportunity to further develop their careers in Australia's film and television industries.
Screen Australia is behind the initiative called Brilliant Stories and Brilliant Careers, which is attempting to address the gender imbalance behind the scenes.
That's because few women direct, produce or write the stories seen on Australian screens.
Screen Australia says only 21 per cent of feature film writers are women and only 16 per cent are directors, with similar low rates seen in television and documentary production.
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The CEO of Screen Australia Graeme Mason said it' was an important issue to address.
"Gender matters is deliberatly designed to tackle disadvantages at all angles," she said. "We want to flood the piplelines and create new opportunities for women emerging and established."
Fifty-eight women are set to benefit from more than three milllion dollars from the government-funded scheme.
People like actor and writer Nakkiah Lui.
Her project is an interrracial, post-colonial love story partly influenced by her indigenous background and the lack of such stories on our screens.
As a child, Ms Lui vividly recalled rarely seeking herself or her family represented on TV.
"Being like this kind of very chubby little brown girl in Mount Druitt, I remember putting my hand up to the white lace curtains in my bedroom and crying because I didn't see anyone who looked like me on TV," she said.
Successful proposals include everything from comedies to science fiction to post apocalyptic thrillers.
Recipient Corrie Chen is a Taiwan born Writer-Director.
She hopes her project - a film set in China and Australia - will increase understanding between the two cultures.
The film's protagonist, a grieving woman, goes to China in search of her long-lost father only to find a city emptied of people.
"The passion of how I think stories can make a difference, these days especially in a world where there is so much division and misunderstanding. I think that stories and filmmaking is a small tool that we are not utilising enough," she said.
While actor, writer and producer Magda Szubanski welcomed the intiative - she said more than money was required to see a project through.
"I think it's very important to not just have access, you have to dig deep. You have to have something to say that makes people want to listen and you have to very much work on your storytelling skills," she said.
The 58 recipients will share in more than $3 million of funding from Screen Australia.
