Protesting sausages crash film awards to call out lack of female representation

A group of women are sick of the "sausage party" that exists in Australia's film and television world.

So Wednesday, they protested against the country's most prestigious industry awards, the AACTAs, dressed in sausage costumes.

Footage on Twitter by journalist Steph Harmon shows security forcibly removing the costumed women, who can be heard chanting "end the sausage party!" in reference to a perceived lack of gender representation on film and TV.

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A Facebook Live from SBS News shows smiling and chanting protesters interrupting in the background, laying on the red carpet and being dragged or chased away by security staff.

The protest was organised by Women in Film and Television of New South Wales (WIFT NSW), as part of a wider campaign highlighting the low instance of female nominations in this year's awards.

"Women are making more content than ever before and this year's nominations, that not only feature films but also television categories, are not at all reflective of this fact ... a deeply disappointing and shameful situation for a body that proclaims to celebrate the width and breadth of screen excellence," WIFT President, Sophie Mathisen, said in a statement.

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The group has called for action when it comes to achieving gender equality at the AACTA Awards, including a commitment to females comprising of 50 per cent of judges and a revision of criteria that makes films eligible for pre-selection.

"It's certainly not how most of us imagined we would look at our first AACTAs but it seemed appropriate attire for Australia's biggest sausage party," Mathisen said.

Oh, and they've made a rather entertaining campaign video, complete with original soundtrack: