In a groundbreaking move, the federal government's film and television agency has created an "express lane" for women to overcome decades of poor representation as scriptwriters, directors and producers.

Screen Australia has announced funding worth more than $3 million for 58 projects led by women, part of a $5 million program aimed at encouraging and supporting female talent.

"We want to flood the pipelines and create new opportunities for women, both emerging and established," said the agency's chief executive, Graeme Mason.

"It's not just a moral or political thing. It makes sense culturally, it makes sense creatively and it also makes sense commercially."

Mason said the Gender Matters program reflected that most viewing in film and television was driven by females.

"If I was an advertiser now or an exhibitor or a commercial broadcaster, I'd want that female-driven content."

Among the projects to get development funding are Rachel Griffiths' Ride Like a Girl, her feature film directing debut about jockey Michelle Payne's Melbourne Cup win last year, television dramas produced by actresses Radha Mitchell, Claudia Karvan​ and Kat Stewart, a film adaptation of Nakkiah Lui's play Kill The Messenger and a mini-series about the young Germaine Greer on the way to writing The Female Eunuch.

The agency was responding to a report released in December that showed women have made up just 16 per cent of directors, 23 per cent of screenwriters and 30 per cent of producers in Australian filmmaking since 1970.

While almost as many women as men have graduated from film school – 48 per cent to 52 per cent – the report cited such barriers for females in the industry as the dominance of men as key decision-makers, taking time out to raise children, lack of self-belief and comparatively poor pay.

Actress and author Magda Szubanski​, who was at the launch, described the program as particularly important for women in the industry.

"We're more than 50 per cent of the population and we are under-represented," she said. "Speaking from my history, Gina [Riley], Jane [Turner], Marg [Downey] and I came through a time when we were constantly told that women were not funny.

"Luckily we didn't believe that and we persisted and Kath and Kim went on to become the most successful comedy show in Australian television history - produced by women, written by women, starring women ...

"This idea that we're not appealing, that we don't have an audience or that we don't have sufficient talent is a nonsense. So any kind of structures that can be put into place to bring women out of the woodwork and then support them is very important."

Judy Davis, who starred in last year's hit film The Dressmaker, described the initiative as wonderful.

"What a great injection into the industry," she said. "There's just so much talent among Australian women. One wants to exploit it really."

Davis said breaking into film was difficult for everyone, regardless of their sex or cultural background.

"It's highly competitive and it's hard. Let's take scriptwriting: it's hard to write a really compelling script ...

"But having said that, I think it would be a reasonable thing to say that men still probably are more comfortable working with other men.

"I don't criticise them for that - I think it's a natural thing - but the more workplaces are shared at levels of significant power ... the more those fears ... and perhaps misconceptions continue to break down."

Archibald Prize winning artist Del Kathryn Barton, who has been funded to develop the feature film Flower, described it as an extraordinary day.

"I was really shocked when I heard the statistics that have come out of the film world," she said. "I didn't realise it was that bad.

"So today is a really, really important and generous day and there'll be a lot of magic that comes from it."

Also funded is a television adaptation of broadcaster Sarah Macdonald's book Holy Cow, with Radha Mitchell as one of the producers; the crime drama series Overflow, which Claudia Karvan​ will produce; and the comedy series The Elementals, about three washed-up superheroes living in a share house, with Kat Stewart among the producers.

The mini-series I Am Woman, centring on Germaine Greer's life, is to be directed by Daina Reid (Paper Giants, The Secret River); Rachel Ward will direct the drama series Propinquity, about women's suffrage activist Vida Goldstein; and the co-director of the Arab Film Festival, Fadia Abboud​, will executive produce and co-write the television series Sex in the West, about three Arab, Muslim and Christian friends living in western Sydney.

The program funds 27 new directors and 46 writers who are either newcomers or moving into a new field.

It includes funding for the Australian Directors Guild and various production companies to encourage female talent – including training for budding scriptwriters to get their first job – and for Mia Freedman's Mamamia to move into online series.