fiction.wikisort.org - Director

Warwick Thornton (born 1970) is an Australian film director, screenwriter and cinematographer. His debut feature film Samson and Delilah won the Caméra d'Or at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and the award for Best Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.[1] He also won the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Film in 2017 for Sweet Country.[1]

Warwick Thornton
Born	1970 (age 51–52) Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter, cinematographer
Notable work	Samson and Delilah (2009) Sweet Country (2017)
Partner	Beck Cole (1999–c.2017)
Children	Dylan River, Luka Magdeline Cole, Rona
Parent	Freda Glynn (mother)
Relatives	Erica Glynn (sister) Rona Glynn (aunt)

Early life and education

Thornton is a Kaytetye man born and raised in Alice Springs.[2] His mother Freda Glynn co-founded and was the first director of the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) and was the director of Imparja Television for its first 10 years.

At 13, Thornton was sent to school in Australia's only monastic town, New Norcia, Western Australia,[3] although he later declared he became angry with Christianity and did not consider himself religious.[4][5]

He graduated in cinematography from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.[6]

Career

Thornton began his career making short films and has achieved success with them at film festivals around the world, including Payback at the Telluride Film Festival and Green Bush and Nana at the Berlin International Film Festival.[6] He describes his decision to become a filmmaker in an interview in 2007:

Where I grew up in Alice I was a DJ for a radio station (CAAMA). The station began a film unit and so I watched people pack cameras and equipment into cars and take off to make films. I was alone at the radio station and I thought that I really wanted to go with them. That's how it started, I made a film called Green Bush which is basically about that time. Eventually I went to AFTRS in Sydney and got really involved as a Director of Photography. I’ve been in the business for 9 years now.[6]

Thornton shared a personal as well as professional relationship with Beck Cole, and along with producer Kath Shelper called themselves "the trinity", working together from 2004.[7]

In 2009 Thornton wrote, directed and shot his first feature film Samson & Delilah, which won awards including the Camera d’Or for best first feature film at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. The following year he filmed the documentary series Art + Soul about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, which was written and narrated by curator Hetti Perkins.[2] The installation Mother Courage (inspired by Bertolt Brecht's 1939 character) was commissioned by dOCUMENTA and ACMI, and first exhibited in 2012.[2]

Awards and nominations

Year	Film	Nomination/Award	Festival
2007	Nana	Melbourne Airport Award for Emerging Talent	Melbourne International Film Festival[6]
2007	Nana	Best Short Film	Inside Film Awards (IF Awards)[6]
2008	Nana	Best Short Film	Berlin International Film Festival[6]
2009	Samson and Delilah	Caméra d'Or	Cannes Film Festival[8]
2009	Samson and Delilah	Feature Film Screenplay (Original)	Australian Writers' Guild Award[9]
2009	Samson and Delilah	Outstanding Achievement in Film	Deadly Awards[10]
2009	Samson and Delilah	Best Director, Best Script and Best Music	Inside Film Awards[10]
2009	Nana	Best Short Film Director	Inside Film Awards[10]
2009	Samson and Delilah	Best Film	Asia Pacific Screen Awards[1]
2009	Samson and Delilah	Best Director and Best Original Screenplay	AFI Awards[10]
2009	Samson and Delilah	Best Music	Dinosaur Design IF Award[10]
2009	Samson and Delilah	Award for Best Direction	National Film and Sound Archive IF Award[10]
2009		Northern Territorian of the Year[11]
2017	Sweet Country	Best Film	Asia Pacific Screen Awards[10]
2017	Sweet Country	Platform Prize	Toronto International Film Festival[12]

Family and personal life

Thornton's sister, Erica Glynn,[13] is also a film writer and director.[14]

Thornton was formerly married to filmmaker Beck Cole, whom he met in 1999.[5] They have a daughter, Luka May,[15][5] an actress also known as Luka Magdeline Cole or Luka May Glynn-Cole.[16] The couple shared a personal as well as professional relationship (see above).[7] By 2018 Thornton and Cole had separated.[17]

Thornton also has a son, Dylan River, who is a filmmaker who has worked with his father,[18] and another daughter, Rona, from an earlier relationship.[5]

Filmography

As director

• From Sand to Celluloid – Payback (1996), Blackfella Films, short film, also writer
• Willigan's Fitzroy (2000), documentary, also writer
• Mimi (2002) Blackfella Films, short film, also director, starring Aaron Pedersen and Sophie Lee
• Green Bush (2005), short film, also writer, starring David Page, produced by CAAMA Productions
• The Old Man and the Inland Sea (2005), documentary, also writer
• Burning Daylight (2007), documentary
• Dark Science (2007), documentary, co-director
• Nana (2007), short film
• Samson and Delilah (2009)
• Art + Soul (2010)
• The Darkside (2013)
• Words With Gods (2014)
• We Don't Need a Map (2017), documentary
• Sweet Country (2017)
• Mystery Road (TV series) Series 2. (2020)
• The Beach (2020) - TV documentary series about himself in isolation on a beach on the remote Dampier Peninsula[19]

As cinematographer

• Marn Grook: An Aboriginal Perspective on Australian Rules Football (1997), documentary
• Radiance (1998), feature film, directed by Rachel Perkins)
• Buried Country (2000), documentary, directed by Andy Nehl, based on the book by Clinton Walker
• Ngangkari Way (2001), documentary, directed by Erica Glynn
• Flat (2001), short film, directed by Beck Cole
• Mimi (2001), short film, directed by Warwick Thornton
• Kurtal: Snake Spirit (2002), documentary, co-cinematographer
• Queen of Hearts (2003), directed by Danielle MacLean
• Wirriya: Small Boy (2004), documentary, co-cinematographer, directed by Beck Cole
• Five Seasons (2005), documentary, directed by Steven McGregor
• The Lore of Love (2005), documentary, directed by Beck Cole
• My Brother Vinnie (2006), documentary, directed by Steven McGregor
• Plains Empty (2006), short film, directed by Beck Cole
• Green Bush (2006), short film, directed by Warwick Thornton
• First Australians (2006), television series, directed by Beck Cole & Rachel Perkins
• Samson & Delilah (2009), feature film, directed by Warwick Thornton
• Here I Am (2011), feature film, directed by Beck Cole
• The Sapphires (2012), feature film, directed by Wayne Blair
• Sweet Country (2017), directed by Warwick Thornton

References

Further reading

• Mailman, Deborah (introduction) (2018), Duthie, Amanda (ed.), Kin : an extraordinary Australian filmmaking family: Including Freda Glynn, Warwick Thornton, Erica Glynn, Dylan River, Tanith Glynn-Maloney [Trove catalogue entry], Wakefield Press, ISBN 978-1-74305-635-6, In Kin: An extraordinary Australian filmmaking family, artists and filmmakers from all over the world pay tribute to the indomitable Freda Glynn and her family.
• Siemienowicz, Rochelle (1 November 2018). "Freda Glynn - from little things, big things grow". ScreenHub Australia. Book review and extract.

External links

• Warwick Thornton at IMDb
• Interview with Warwick Thornton

На других языках

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[de] Warwick Thornton

Warwick Thornton (* 23. Juli 1970 in Alice Springs) ist ein australischer Künstler, Filmregisseur, Kameramann und Drehbuchautor.

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- [en] Warwick Thornton

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[ru] Торнтон, Уорик

Уорик Торнтон (англ. Warwick Thornton) — австралийский режиссёр, сценарист и кинооператор; представитель коренного населения Северной территории Австралийского Союза, обладатель «Золотой камеры» Каннского кинофестиваля 2009 года за лучший дебютный полнометражный фильм.

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