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AUSTRALIAN FILM DIRECTORS
Gillian
Armstrong
She's
made several outstanding films with Australia's most awarded
actress - Judy Davis, notably High Tide and My
Brilliant Career . Like many of the top Australian
film talent, she has been lured overseas to work on bigger budget
projects, such as Oscar and Lucinda, How To Make An
American Quilt, and Little Woman, however she's never
quite duplicated her local successes with overseas hits. After
a four year break following the box-office failure of Oscar
and Lucinda, she returned with Charlotte Grey, starring
Cate Blanchett. Still Australia's highest profile woman director,
if yet to produce the masterpeice many expect of her.
 Bruce
Beresford
 Paul
Cox
Cox
is a very special kind of director. In the working vein of Woody
Allen, Cox writes and directs a new film every year or two like
clockwork. Unlike Allen, he's never been recognised on the world
stage, as he should be. Island, Man of Flowers, Lonely Hearts
and A Woman's Tale and all worthy of international
accolades, yet one suspects his attraction to gentle, subtle,
mature drama will always marginalise him in the popular cinema.
Rolf
de Heer
De
Heer is emerging as one of Australia's great directors. Bad
Boy Bubby marked Adelaide-based de Heer's first acknowledged
master-work. The Tracker rightly
won him the best film award at the 2003 Australian Film Institute's
annual ceremony. Like Cox, de Heer is not as high profile as
other directors on this list, yet he consistently produces outstanding
films. His latest film, Ten Canoes
is the most original Aboriginal in many years. See: Bad
Boy Bubby, The Tracker, Ten
Canoes.
John
Duigan
Duigan's
forte is undoubtably the coming of age film, of which he has
made several fantastic versions. Flirting
and The Year My Voice Broke
are certainly his most well known. Other projects have
included The Leading Man, starring Bon Jovi, and Sirens,
the Norman Lindsay bio-flic. See: Flirting,
The Year My Voice Broke.
 Ray
Lawrence
Lawrence
is Australia's answer to Terrence Mallick. 2006 sees the
release of Jindabyne, which is only his third film
in a career that began with Bliss
in 1985. His second film was Lantana,
which stands as a rare accomplishment for Australian cinema,
having been both critically acclaimed and commercailly successfull.
Both Bliss and Lantana
won the AFI Best Film Award, and with Jindabyne he
will be a strong contender for three-from-three. One of
Australia's best directors. See: Bliss,
Lantana.
 Baz
Luhrmann
Luhrmann
is as camply flamboyant as is possible for a director to be.
Strictly Ballroom was
a smash hit for him in Australia, before he went on to make
Romeo and Juliet, followed by Moulin
Rouge. Never one to do things by halves, his next
project was the massive Alexander (the Great) bio-pic,
which has not been a success for him. See: Moulin
Rouge, Strictly Ballroom.
George
Miller
If
Ray Lawrence is our Mallick, perhaps Miller can be called
our Spielberg. In the last decade 'Dr George' (he started
off in life as a GP) has taken the credibility and talent
shown in the Mad Max films, and
projected it into two hugely successful projects - Babe,
the unlikely story about a talking pig - and more lately
a second animal tribute, Happy Feet,
about a penguin who can't sing. These vocally challenged
animals now both sit in the top 5 all time Australian hits,
and George Miller can claim the title of our directing champion
in terms of dollars generated. The wonderful thing for Australian
film lovers is that these films are actually also very well
made, and enjoyable on all levels. See: Mad
Max, Babe, Happy
Feet.
Phillip Noyce
The
big man of Australian film, quite literally with his 6'6' towering
frame. He's actually made more films overseas than Australia,
notably the Tom Clancy adaptions Clear and Present Danger
and Patriot Games. Dead
Calm, starring Nicole Kidman and Sam Neil, was an exceptional
thriller, and he is responsible for the most popular (and also
critically acclaimed) Aussie film of recent years - Rabbit
Proof Fence. See: Dead
Calm, Rabbit Proof Fence.
Nadia
Tass
Tass
emigrated to Australia from Greece, and along the way somewhere
learnt how to make very good films indeed! Well observed comedy
about real lives is her speciality. Malcolm
is probably her best known film, however Amy
and The Big Steal are also fondly remembered. See:
Amy, Malcolm.
Peter
Weir
Weir
is frequently referred to as our greatest ever film director.
With due cause. He's been behind several simply classic Australian
films, including arguably the best Australian film ever: Picnic
at Hanging Rock. Gallipoli
and The Last Wave are also masterpieces. Not only that,
he's helmed several very successful overseas films - such as
Green Card, Witness and Dead
Poets Society amongst these. Master and Commander,
starring Russel Crowe, is not his best work, and yet another
feather in the cap for this phenomenonally talented man. See:
Gallipoli, Picnic
at Hanging Rock.
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