Gracie Otto

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Gracie Otto
GracieOttoFrOct2011.jpg
Born (1987-05-23) May 23, 1987 (age 38)
Occupation
  • Director
Years active2005–present
Parent(s) Barry Otto
Susan Hill
Relatives Miranda Otto (half-sister)
Website www.gracieotto.tv

Gracie Otto is an Australian film and television director.

Contents

Early life

Gracie Otto is the daughter of the Australian actor Barry Otto and Susan Hill. Actress Miranda Otto is her half-sister. She attended Burwood Girls High School in Sydney. As a schoolgirl, Otto represented Australia and New South Wales in Futsal (indoor soccer), and represented her home state New South Wales in school softball. [1]

Director

Otto at the 1st AACTA Awards, 2012 Gracie Otto (6794784291).jpg
Otto at the 1st AACTA Awards, 2012

Otto's feature-length directing debut was with the 2014 documentary The Last Impresario , about prolific British theatre impresario and film producer Michael White. The film made its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival in October 2013, where it was positively received by critics. It features interviews with 60 of White's friends and associates including Kate Moss, Anna Wintour and Yoko Ono. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

In 2019, after winning the North American Script Competition through Soho House in the US, Gracie directed a short film Desert Dash, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.[ citation needed ]

In 2019, Otto was the director of the second series of the Stan original, The Other Guy starring Matt Okine, Claudia Karvan, and Harriet Dyer.

In early 2021, the Stan original series Bump was released starring Claudia Karvan, Natalie Morris, and Angus Sampson. Otto directed three of the ten episodes in the series.[ citation needed ]

In 2021, Otto's second feature documentary Under the Volcano , about music producer George Martin's 1980s recording studio in Montserrat, was released through Universal Pictures featuring interviews with Sting (musician), Mark Knopfler and Jimmy Buffett and premiered at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.

In 2022, she directed seven episodes of the Netflix comedy drama series Heartbreak High , for which she was nominated for the AACTA Award for Best Direction in Drama or Comedy. [7] Heartbreak High won the International Emmy Award for Best Kids: Live-Action as the first season of Heartbreak High debuted at number six on Netflix's Top 10 TV English titles for the tracking week of 19–25 September 2022 with 18.25 million hours viewed. On the following week, it climbed to number five and garnered 14.88 million viewing hours. The series remained in the top 10 for the third week, placing at number eight with 9.48 million viewing hours.

In 2022, Gracie Otto directed her first feature film Seriously Red , an Australian romantic comedy starring Krew Boylan, Daniel Webber, Celeste Barber, Bobby Cannavale, and Rose Byrne. The film premiered at South by Southwest on 13 March 2022. It was released theatrically in Australia on 24 November 2022 by Roadshow Films. In July 2022, Gravitas Ventures and Lionsgate acquired North American rights to the film, with a planned release on February 10, 2023.

Otto directed two episodes for Deadloch , an Australian black comedy crime mystery that premiered on Amazon Prime Video on 2 June 2023 and created by Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan.

In 2023, Otto directed four episodes for Disney+ of The Clearing (TV series) starring Teresa Palmer, Guy Pearce and Miranda Otto

Otto directed the whole series of Ladies in Black , an Australian television drama series based on the novel The Women in Black by Madeleine St John and second adaptation after the 2018 film, Ladies in Black . It aired on ABC on 16 June 2024, starring Debi Mazar.

In 2025, Otto’s third feature documentary Otto by Otto won the AACTA Award for Best Feature Length Documentary. Interviewees include Neil Armfield, Gillian Armstrong, Ray Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Baz Luhrmann, John Bell and Miranda Otto. The movie was made with finance from Screen Australia. The film played at the 71st Sydney Film Festival and then on Stan. The Guardian called it "an emotionally rich film that truly could not have been made by anybody else. It is filled, like Otto’s performances, with light and shade."

Filmography

As director

As actress

References

  1. The Sydney Morning Herald | Gracie Otto makes mark with directorial debut The Last Impresario, by Linda Morris, 5 June 2014
  2. Pfeiffer, Oliver (10 September 2013). "Gracie Otto's The Last Impresario to premiere at London Film Festival". SBS .
  3. 'The Last Impresario' to premiere at BFI London Film Festival FilmInk.com.au Archived 5 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine , by Cara Nash, 5 September 2013
  4. London Film Review: 'The Last Impresario', by Charles Gant, 29 October 2013, Variety magazine
  5. The Last Impresario: London Review, by Stephen Dalton, 13 October, The Hollywood Reporter |
  6. WizardRadio.co.uk | Review: The Last Impresario Archived 5 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine , 14 October 2013
  7. "Leah Purcell is four-midable as Elvis, Mystery Road dominate AACTA award nominations". Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
  8. Seriously Red at IMDb