A roll call of big-budget blockbusters has chosen to film in NSW over the last two or three years: Hollywood star vehicles such as The Fall Guy, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Mad Max: Furiosa and the romcom Anyone But You.

All of which suggests a robust film and television production sector.

But for more than a year now, Ausfilm, which promotes Australia to the film world, and other industry bodies have been sounding the alarm about a looming undersupply of skilled film crew and a shortage of high-tech production spaces and sound studios in Australia, particularly in Sydney.

Fixing both is regarded as among the two most difficult challenges facing the local film sector this decade, which is why NSW’s new screen strategy, as sincere as its intentions are, is unlikely to silence the grumbling sector.

At ground level, NSW film producers want more funding and greater statutory certainty to create unique Australian stories – such as Colin from Accounts – that they can export to the world.

There is always a feeling that governments can be too captive to Hollywood. That Screen NSW is too shackled to its bureaucratic bedfellows. Good first steps, they say of the strategy, which promises a more welcoming, film-friendly environment and a receptive minister. But keep walking.

Think of the film industry as water, one long-time observer advises. It runs where it can find financial incentives, the spaces to create and the expertise to bring stories together. It owes no loyalty to a country, state or a city, even one as naturally blessed NSW and Sydney.

Despite some detectable softness in the screen production pipeline, demand for streaming services, a relatively low Australian dollar, more generous federal tax rebates and the prospect of local content quotas mean the global river is set to run to Australia – but not automatically to the gateway city of Sydney.

New sound stages are proposed for the Gold Coast and Perth, and the biggest water tank and video screen stage opened at Melbourne’s Docklands last year.