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Scott Hicks is an Emmy Award-winning director whose work encompasses films, television drama, and documentaries, as well as commercials and music videos.
Hicks' film, Sebastian and The Sparrow, which he also wrote and produced, was the story of a rich boy and a street kid who team-up to find the latter's mother. The film was a winner in three international film festival competitions, including Frankfurt, where it was awarded the Lucas Prize as Best Film (1990). Following a successful cinema season and television release in Australia, the film was invited to participate in numerous other international festivals.
Hicks also directed and co-wrote the acclaimed documentary series "The Great Wall of Iron," an in-depth portrait of the People's Liberation Army of China in the months prior to Tianenmen Square. The film won the prestigious Peabody Award as Best Documentary Series broadcast in the U.S. in 1989 and became the highest-rated program to air on America's The Discovery Channel until that time.
The four-hour series "Submarines: Sharks of Steel," which he directed and co-wrote, once again broke the ratings record set for The Discovery Channel by his previous work. In 1994 Hicks was awarded the Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement for directing this series. As writer and director Hicks completed "The Space Shuttle," another two hour special commissioned by The Discovery Channel in 1994. His most recent documentary project, "The Ultimate Athlete," is a 90-minute project filmed on a $1.5 budget in Kenya. Hicks began "The Ultimate Athlete" right after presenting Shine in its world premiere at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival.
Hicks, who also directed the Australian miniseries "Finders Keepers" and telefilm "Call Me Mr. Brown," lives in Adelaide, Australia with his wife Kerry Heysen, who served as creative consultant on Shine, and their two sons.
Jane Scott, since entering the film industry in the UK in the late sixties, has established a prolific production reputation for herself, both at domestic and international levels. The lure of film wrested her from a promising career in magazine journalism. Scott's initial film experience was provided by the British Film Institute, first in distribution and then in production, where she "worked her film apprenticeship." After three years with the BFI it was time to venture out into the world of independent production.
Her first association with the Australian film industry was through Bruce Beresford and The Adventures Of Barry McKenzie in the early seventies, followed a year later by Barry McKenzie Holds His Own. Production roles on various projects saw Scott make many trips to Australia over the next few years.
A permanent resident in Australia from 1979, Scott's producer credits include John Cornell's Crocodile Dundee II, Geoff Bennett's The Boys In The Island, Carl Schultz's Top Kid, Geoff Bennett's On Loan, Philip Noyce's Echoes of Paradise, and Carl Schultz's Goodbye Paradise. International television credits as producer include the award winning BBC series "The Boys from the Bush," directed by Rob Marchand and Shirley Barrett and ABC's "Stephen King's The Tommyknockers," directed by John Power. She also line produced Gillian Armstrong's My Brilliant Career, Henri Safran's Stormboy, David Hemmings' The Survivor, Baz Luhrmann's Strictly Ballroom and the international smash hit Crocodile Dundee.
Scott served as a Director on the Board of the South Australian Film Corporation from 1989-1995. Shine represents the culmination of an impressive twenty-five years in the film industry. Scott is currently developing several other film and television projects.
One of Australia's most active screenwriters in film and television, Sardi's feature film credits include Moving Out and Street Hero, both of which were nominated for Best Original Screenplay by the Australian Film Institute and the Australian Writers' Guild, Ground Zero, which received nine AFI nominations, including Best Screenplay and Best Picture and which was a finalist at the 1988 Berlin Film Festival, Secrets and "Just Friends," a telemovie which received the Best Film Award at the Chicago International Festival of Children's Films.
Sardi's television series credits include "Embassy," "Phoenix," "The New Mission: Impossible" and "The Man From Snowy River." His telemovie credits include "The Feds" and "Halifax f.p." In addition, Sardi has written two books - A Cast of Thousands and the novelization of Just Friends, published by Penguin. Currently, Sardi is adapting The Notebook, a novel by Nicholas Sparks for New Line Cinema. In July 1996, Sardi won two Australian Writer's Guild Awards (Augies): Best Screenplay for Telemovie "Halifax f.p." and Best Original Screenplay for Shine.
GEOFFREY SIMPSON - Director of Photography
Geoffrey Simpson, one of Australia's most successful directors of photography, is also known for the significant work he has done all around the world. He recently filmed Somebody's Son in Ireland, for director Terry George, which premiered at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Other film credits include Little Women for director Gillian Armstrong, Peter Weir'sGreen Card shot on location in New York, Jon Avnet's Fried Green Tomatoes, Anthony Minghella's Mr. Wonderful, starring Matt Dillon, Gillian Armstrong's The Last Days of Chez Nous, John Seale's "Til There Was You and Avnet's The War, which featured Kevin Costner.
Simpson began his career working on documentaries such as The Migrant Experience, Nicaragua No Pasaran and Where Death Wears A Smile. In 1981 he won the Golden Tripod A.C.S. Award for the dramatized television documentary "Breaking Point," which he followed in 1982 with a corporate documentary "Electricity" and the feature film Centrespread, both of which won Golden Tripod A.C.S. Awards that year.
A recipient of numerous accolades, he won the 1985 Golden Tripod A.C.S. Award and Milli Award as Cinematographer of the Year for the feature film Playing Beattie Bow and won an A.C.S. Merit Award in the same year for Scott Hicks' "Call Me Mr. Brown." "The Shiralee," an Australian television mini-series, won him the Silver Tripod A.C.S. Award in 1987, and in 1988, he won the Golden Tripod A.C.S. Award for Kennedy Miller's tele-feature "Riddle of the Stinson." Simpson then completed the acclaimed feature film The Navigator, directed by Vincent Ward, which won both the 1988 Australian Film Industry Award and 1989 New Zealand Film & Television Award for Cinematography.
Australian editor Pip Karmel is also an award-winning writer/director. In 1993 she directed "The Long Ride," and won Best Tele-feature at the 1994 Australian Film Institute Awards. In 1991 her short drama Fantastic Futures won several awards including the ITVA Grand Mobie and was presented at the New York Film Festival. A graduate of the Australian Film Television and Radio School, Karmel's graduate film, Sex Rules received wide acclaim at international festivals and won the Jury Prize at the 1990 ATOM Awards.
Karmel first worked with director Scott Hicks as first assistant editor on his 1985 tele-feature "Call Me Mr. Brown" and went on to edit his feature film, Sebastian and The Sparrow.
VICKI NIEHUS - Production Designer
Vicki Niehus has credits on ten features and numerous highly rated large budget television movies and commercials. Her first project as a production designer was in 1987 on South Australian made Captain Johnno in 1987, which received an Emmy Award for Best Foreign Children's Film. The main body of Niehus' work has been on period pieces from Victorian and Edwardian to contemporary. These have included the Australian and foreign productions Australie, starring Jeremy Irons, The Time Guardian with Carrie Fisher, and Robbery Under Arms, starring Sam Neill.
LOUISE WAKEFIELD - Costume Designer
Since 1981, Louise Wakefield has been working professionally in the field of costume design for film, TV, theatre and commercials. Early on, she was involved as a costume assistant in Gillian Armstrong's acclaimed film, High Tide. From there, she worked full time as costume designer in films such as Beyond El Rocco, Daydream Believer, The Last Days of Chez Nous, TV shows such as "The Ferals," "Escape from Jupiter," "Mission Top Secret 2," "The Whipping Boy," and stage productions of "Raindancers," "The Homecoming," and "Uncle Vanya." She also worked as assistant costume designer on the Oscar-nominated film Babe. Her most recent film assignments are Fistful of Flies and Doing Time for Patsy Cline.
DAVID HIRSCHFELDER - Music Director and Composer
David Hirschfelder is the musical genius behind Baz Luhrmann's internationally acclaimed feature film Strictly Ballroom. In Australia the film was nominated for a staggering 13 AFI Awards and after being nominated in three categories at the British Film and Television Academy Awards (BAFTA), Hirschfelder took the sole prize for Best Original Score. The soundtrack debuted in the Australian music charts at No.6 and remained in the Top 10 for six weeks.
Hirschfelder has long been regarded as one of the key figures on the Australian music scene. He first sprang to prominence in 1980, performing and composing for his contemporary jazz ensemble Pyramid. In 1983 Pyramid was invited to share top billing at the prestigious Montrieux Jazz Festival.
He has composed numerous scores for film and television and won a Penguin Award for Best Musical Score in 1987 for the multi-award-winning documentary "Suzy's Story." In 1990, Hirschfelder composed the music for the mini-series "Shadows of the Heart," which was nominated as Best TV Theme at the APRA Awards.
Hirschfelder has worked as keyboardist, songwriter, and arranger for Australia's number one artist John Farnham, on his albums "Whispering Jack," "Age of Reason," "Chain Reaction" and "Full House," as well as serving as Farnham's musical director on his numerous record-breaking tours in Australia.
He re-orchestrated, produced and performed on 1992's biggest Australian album, the cast recording of the record-breaking show "Jesus Christ Superstar" which entered the Australian music charts at No.1, went platinum on the first day and double platinum within eight weeks.
As a performer, producer and composer, Hirschfelder has also been featured on albums by Little River Band, Southern Sons, Skyhooks, Dragon, guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel and classical flautist Jane Rutter.
At the 1993 ARIA Awards Hirschfelder was nominated as Producer of the Year for his production of the No.1 song, "Everything's All Right," sung by John Farnham and Kate Ceberano, adding this prestigious accolade to his already impressive list of achievements. From 1994 to 1996 he has composed scores for the following films: Dallas Doll, Life of Harry Dare, Tunnel Vision, Shine and the yet to be released Dating the Enemy.