Chris Noonan | |
|---|---|
 Noonan at the premiere of Miss Potter in 2006 | |
| Born | Christopher Noonan 14 November 1952 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, film producer, screenwriter and actor |
| Years active | 1970–present |
Chris Noonan (born 14 November 1952) [1] is an Australian filmmaker and actor. He is best known for the family film Babe (1995), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Encouraged by his father, Noonan made his first short film, Could It Happen Here? set at North Sydney Boys High School when he was sixteen. It won a prize at the Sydney Film Festival and was later screened on Australian television. [1] On leaving school in 1970 Noonan went to work for the Commonwealth Film Unit (now Film Australia), as a production assistant, assistant editor, production manager and assistant director making short films and documentaries. [1]
In 1973 Noonan was in the inaugural intake on the directors' course (along with Gillian Armstrong and Phillip Noyce) at the Australian Film Television and Radio School. [1] In 1974 he returned to Film Australia where he worked on a number of films and documentaries, including working as assistant director on the cult movie The Cars That Ate Paris . [2] In 1976 he directed Film Australia's documentary series, "Our Asian Neighbours: India", including a film about Swami Shyam, a teacher of Vedant and Meditation living in the Indian Himalayas. [3]
In 1979 he set up his own production company, and in 1980 documented the lives of a troupe of disabled actors, in the film Stepping Out , [1] [2] which won the UNESCO prize in 1980 and an Australian Film Institute Award for 'Best Documentary' in 1981. [4] He co-wrote and co-directed the Australian mini-series The Cowra Breakout , wrote and directed five episodes of the mini-series, Vietnam, and made his television movie debut with The Riddle of the Stinson . [1] [2]
Noonan served for two years (1987–88) as President of the Australian Screen Directors' Association, and in 1990 was appointed for a three-year term as Chairman of the Australian Film Commission. [1]
In 1995 he wrote the screenplay, with George Miller, and directed the film, Babe , [2] his first theatrical feature. [1] The film earned $US280m in its 18-language world theatrical release, a further $US217m in international video sales [1] and was nominated for seven Academy Awards (including nominations for Noonan for directing and writing). The film was recognised with many other honors, including BAFTA Award nominations for Film and Adapted Screenplay.
He co-produced the popular Davida Allen telemovie, Feeling Sexy , in 1999. [1] [2] [5]
In 2006 he directed the biographical film, Miss Potter , based on the life of children's author Beatrix Potter. [1] [2] [6] Noonan has two further projects including Zebras , a drama set in the final days of apartheid South Africa and The Third Witch , a retelling of William Shakespeare's Macbeth from the perspective of one of the witches, in development. [1]
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Bulls | Yes | Yes | No | |
| 1980 | Stepping Out | Yes | Yes | Yes | Documentary short |
| 1995 | Babe | Yes | Yes | No | Nominated- Academy Award for Best Director Nominated- Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated- BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay |
| 2006 | Miss Potter | Yes | No | No | |
Executive Producer
TV movies
| Year | Title | Director | Writer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Cass | Yes | No |
| 1988 | The Riddle of the Stinson | Yes | No |
| 1989 | Police State | Yes | Yes |
TV series
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | The Cowra Breakout | Yes | Yes | Mini-series |
| 1987 | Vietnam | Yes | Yes | |
| 2011 | Crownies | Yes | No | 2 episodes |
| 2013 | The Time of Our Lives | Yes | No | Episode "The First New Chapter" |
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1974 | 27A | Title Designer |
| The Cars That Ate Paris | Assistant Director | |
| 1996 | Idiot Box | Actor |
| 2000 | A Wreck, a Tangle | Thanks |
| 2003 | Preservation | Director Mentor |
| 2004 | Somersault | Script Advisor: Aurora |
Alfonso Cuarón Orozco is a Mexican filmmaker. He is known for directing films in various genres, including the family drama A Little Princess (1995), the coming of age road film Y tu mamá también (2001), the fantasy film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), the science fiction films Children of Men (2006) and Gravity (2013), and the semi-autobiographical drama Roma (2018).
Peter Lindsay Weir is an Australian retired film director. He is known for directing films crossing various genres over forty years with films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Gallipoli (1981), The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), Witness (1985), Dead Poets Society (1989), Fearless (1993), The Truman Show (1998), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), and The Way Back (2010). He has received six Academy Award nominations, ultimately being awarded the Academy Honorary Award in 2022 for his lifetime achievement career.
Babe is a 1995 comedy-drama film directed by Chris Noonan, produced by George Miller and written by both. It is an adaptation of Dick King-Smith's 1983 novel The Sheep-Pig, which tells the story of a farm pig who wants to do the work of a sheepdog. The film is narrated by Roscoe Lee Browne and the main animal characters are played by both real animals and animatronic puppets.
George Miller is an Australian filmmaker, best known for his Mad Max franchise, whose second installment, Mad Max 2, and fourth, Fury Road, have been hailed two of the greatest action films of all time, Fury Road winning six Academy Awards. Miller is very diverse in genre and style as he also directed the biographical medical drama Lorenzo's Oil, the dark fantasy The Witches of Eastwick, and the Academy Award-winning animated film Happy Feet, produced the family-friendly fantasy adventure Babe and directed the sequel Babe: Pig in the City.
Andrew Lesnie ACS ASC was an Australian cinematographer. He was best known as the cinematographer for The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–2003) and its prequel The Hobbit trilogy (2012–2014), both directed by New Zealand director Peter Jackson. He received the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in 2002.
Andrew Ralph Adamson is a New Zealand film director, producer, screenwriter and animator. He is best known for directing the DreamWorks animated films Shrek (2001) and its sequel Shrek 2 (2004), both films based on the book of the same name by William Steig, which he was nominated for the Academy Award for the latter. He also directed and co-wrote the live-action film adaptations of C. S. Lewis's novels, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) and its sequel The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008).
The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, known as the AACTA Awards, are presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). The awards recognise excellence in the film and television industry, both locally and internationally, including the producers, directors, actors, writers, and cinematographers. It is the most prestigious awards ceremony for the Australian film and television industry. They are generally considered to be the Australian counterpart of the Academy Awards for the United States and the BAFTA Awards for the United Kingdom.
Rick Kalowski is an Australian television and film writer/producer, best known for his work on the high-rating but controversial ABC1 sitcom At Home with Julia. Before becoming a writer, Kalowski spent several years working as a lawyer, including clerking for Justice Mary Gaudron at the High Court of Australia.
Miss Potter is a 2006 biographical drama film directed by Chris Noonan. It is based on the life of children's author and illustrator Beatrix Potter, and combines stories from her own life with animated sequences featuring characters from her stories, such as Peter Rabbit. Scripted by Richard Maltby Jr., the director of the Tony Award-winning Broadway revue, Fosse, the film stars Renée Zellweger in the title role, Ewan McGregor as her publisher and fiancé, Norman Warne, and Lloyd Owen as solicitor William Heelis. Emily Watson stars as Warne's sister, Millie. Lucy Boynton also stars as the young Beatrix Potter and Justin McDonald appears as the young William Heelis. It was filmed in St. Peter's Square Hammersmith, Cecil Court, Osterley Park, Covent Garden, the Isle of Man, Scotland and the Lake District.
The Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS), formerly Australian Film and Television School, is Australia's national screen arts and broadcast school. The school is a Commonwealth Government statutory authority.
Lisa Cholodenko is an American screenwriter and director. Cholodenko wrote and directed the films High Art (1998), Laurel Canyon (2002), and The Kids Are All Right (2010). She has also directed television, including the miniseries Olive Kitteridge (2014) and Unbelievable (2019). She has been nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe and has won an Emmy and a DGA Award.
Swami Shyam, born in Chandani, Jalaun district, Uttar Pradesh, India, was raised in the Vedic tradition of Knowledge of the Self (Atma-gyan). Shyam has meditated, studied and been dedicated to this tradition since his early childhood, when his father invited Swami Ramanand, a guru from Uttar Pradesh, to live in their home. Swami Ramanand initiated the young Shyam in meditation, and the family home became a meeting place for satsang for those who lived in the region. Ramanand taught the Vedas, the Bhagavad Gita, the Srimad Bhagavatam and other scriptures, as well as meditation. In 1973 Shyam moved to Kullu, Valley of Gods, Himachal Pradesh, India.
Matteo Zingales is an Australian film music composer who has won the AACTA Award for Best Original Score for a Feature Film for two years running. In 2013, he shared the award with Jono Ma for Best Score for Not Suitable for Children (2012), and in 2012, Zingales, Michael Lira and Andrew Lancaster shared the award for Best Score for The Hunter (2011).
Kennedy Miller Mitchell is an Australian film, television and video game production house in Potts Point, Sydney, that has been producing television and film since 1978. It is responsible for some of Australia's best-known and most successful films, including the four Mad Max films, the two Babe films, and the two Happy Feet films.
The 3rd Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards are a series of awards which includes the 3rd AACTA Awards Luncheon, the 3rd AACTA Awards ceremony and the 3rd AACTA International Awards. The former two events were held at The Star Event Centre, in Sydney, New South Wales on 28 January and 30 January 2014, respectively. Presented by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA), the awards celebrated the best in Australian feature film, television, documentary and short film productions of 2013. The AACTA Awards ceremony were televised on Network Ten. These awards were a continuum of the Australian Film Institute Awards, established in 1958 and presented until 2010, which was rebranded the AACTA Awards when the Australian Film Institute (AFI) established AACTA in 2011.
Doug Mitchell is a film producer.
Margaret Sixel is an Australian and South African film editor. She is best known for her work as editor on her husband George Miller's films, including Babe: Pig in the City (1998), Happy Feet (2006), and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). For Fury Road, she won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing and the BAFTA Award for Best Editing.
Peter Hannan is an Australian cinematographer who spent the majority of his career in Great Britain.
Steven McGregor is an Australian filmmaker, known for his work on Redfern Now, Black Comedy, Sweet Country, and numerous documentaries, including My Brother Vinnie.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Other | |
