Bruce Beresford is one of Australia’s most celebrated, prolific and successful filmmakers, having worked extensively at home and internationally: from iconic Australian New Wave films such as The Getting of Wisdom and Breaker Morant, to the Academy Award-winning Driving Miss Daisy.

On the day after the MIFF screening of the NFSA’s digital restoration of his 1991 Australian/Canadian co-production Black Robe, Bruce will sit down for one-hour conversation about his extraordinary career.

Moderated by Philippa Hawker

Bruce Beresford has directed over 30 feature films. Probably his best-known film is Driving Miss Daisy, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1989. He was nominated for an Academy Award for the script of Breaker Morant (1979) and direction for Tender Mercies (1981). Black Robe (1992) won the Canadian academy award. His other films include Crimes of the Heart (1995), The Fringe Dwellers (1996), Double Jeopardy (1999), Evelyn (2002), Paradise Road (2001), Mao’s Last Dancer (2009) and Bonnie and Clyde (2013). His recent work includes Mr Church (2015) with Eddie Murphy, part four of the television series Roots (2015), and Ladies in Black (2018).

He was the head of production for the British Film Institute Production Board (London) 1966–71, and film advisor to Arts Council of Great Britain. He has directed operas in Italy, USA and Australia, including Of Mice and Men in 2011 for Opera Australia, which won the Green Room award for Best Opera production as well as Best Direction.

Philippa Hawker is the former editor of Cinema Papers, wrote about film and the arts for The Age, and is now a film writer for The Australian.

---

Co-presented with the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia