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.Catherine Mack's 'Passenger'.

Tropfest has unveiled its 2017 lineup, and for the first time in the festival's 25 year history, half of the finalists are women..

Last year, the festival came under fire for having only one female finalist.(Angela McCormack for her film,.Tay Man). Tropfest founder and director John Polson called for more women to enter.the fest, pointing out that the number of female entrants (and not just female finalists) had traditionally hovered around the 20 per cent mark..

In June, as Tropfest announced a switch to a not-for-profit business model, it also promised the festival would have.a stronger focus on attracting female filmmakers.

Polson called the calibre of films submitted for 2017's festival .outstanding. and noted it was wonderful to see entrants reflecting a range of diversity and gender..

.Over the past 12 months, we.ve made a major effort to attract women to enter Tropfest.—.with help from...

Jane Turner, Marg Downey, Glenn Robbins, Gina Riley, Magda Szubanski, Michael Veitch, Shane Jacobson and Stephen Curry are matching wits in a new weekly sketch comedy which the producers see as the beginning of a franchise.

Commissioned by The Comedy Channel, Open Slather also features a dozen rising stars on the comedy circuit: Ben Gerrard, Ben Lomas, Dave Eastgate, Demi Lardner, Emily Taheny, George H. Xanthis, Hannah Bath, Holly Austin, Ilai Swindells, Jay K Cagatay, Laura Hughes and Miles O.Neil.

Filmed in Melbourne with a live studio audience, the show takes aim at popular culture, politics, sport, music and media. Among the likely targets: Tony Abbott, reality shows such as The Voice and the soon-to-conclude Mad Men.

The 20-part series is being produced by McWaters Productions, marking the third collaboration between Kath & Kim.s Rick McKenna and Chris Lilley.s producing partner Laura Waters.

McKenna first got the idea...