Emma Jane Unsworth: 'Only money can get more women into film'

Writer-turned-screenwriter Emma Jane Unsworth believes talking about gender equality will not succeed in the arts unless female writers follow the money.

The Prestwich-born author released novel Animals in 2014, which won praise for its bold and unfiltered portrayal of female friendship.

She adapted the book into a screenplay for the indie film of the same name, released earlier this year starring Holliday Grainger and Alia Shawkat. Last week it won the author the debut screenwriter prize at the British Independent Film Awards.

Unsworth told the Standard: "It's extremely hard, because there are so few female screenwriters, and so few female directors and so few female producers, even though there's a lot of talk at the moment about getting more women involved in the film world. But actually what we need is money behind that [talk], what we need is money being put behind women wanting to get into this world, because if you look at the statistics for the films that are made, generally, it's men across the board.

"It is changing, but what will make a change is money being put in the way of women who want to make films, that's all that's going to make a difference. The patriarchy is based on an economic structure and all that's going to change it is not talk, it's money."

The author was given the chance to adapt her own novel for the big screen by the female producer of Animals, Sarah Brocklehurst. She explained: "For me it's a huge new world. I wanted to be a writer but the only way I knew how to be that, I guess because I'm British, was to be a novelist, and then I started to get into screenwriting and luckily the producer gave me the chance to write the screenplay. But otherwise it would have been very hard to break into.”

The writer advised aspiring female writers and filmmakers to apply for funding, and try to find independent producers as they are “even more important for writers” than directors.

"It’s partly persistence but it's also about being smart about who you contact, find the good producers,” she said. “They will get the money for you to be able to do what you need to do, and in order to survive as a writer you need money."

The author is currently writing scripts for television, and plans to pen a "big, noisy comedy about women" in future, because British television is "still not very good at that".