Renée Webster

Last updated

Renée Webster is a filmmaker from Western Australia. She is known for her direction work on several TV series, including The Heights , and on television commercials. Her first feature film, How to Please a Woman , was released in 2022.

Contents

Career

Webster's short films Scoff (2003) and Edgar and Elizabeth (2007) were screened in film festivals worldwide and garnered awards. [1]

Her career in television started in Western Australia with direction work the children's television series Streetsmartz , which aired from 2005 to 2007. [2] [3] This was followed by directing three episodes of Marx and Venus (2007–8). [4]

She was set-up director [5] on five episodes of the children's TV series Itch , which aired in 2020, [4] and directed 11 episodes across both seasons of The Heights (2019–2020), both on ABC Television. [5]

She also directs television commercials, including for Lotterywest and Western Power, and documentaries. [5]

She directed and wrote the screenplay for her first feature film, a comedy entitled How to Please a Woman, starring Sally Phillips and Erik Thomson. [6] After screening at Perth International Arts Festival, the WA Made Film Festival and a gala night at Luna Cinemas in Perth, [1] the film opened around Australia in May 2022 to generally positive reviews. [7] [8]

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renée Zellweger</span> American actress (born 1969)

Renée Kathleen Zellweger is an American actress. The recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards, she was one of the world's highest-paid actresses by 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Campion</span> New Zealand film director, screenwriter and producer

Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion is a New Zealand filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing the critically acclaimed films The Piano (1993) and The Power of the Dog (2021), for which she has received a total of two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. Campion was appointed a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (DNZM) in the 2016 New Year Honours, for services to film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sigrid Thornton</span> Australian actress

Sigrid Madeline Thornton is an Australian film and television actress. Her television work includes Prisoner (1979–80), All the Rivers Run (1983), SeaChange (1998–2019) and Wentworth (2016–2018). She also starred in the American Western series Paradise (1988–91). Her film appearances include Snapshot (1979), The Man from Snowy River (1982), Street Hero (1984) and Face to Face (2011). She won the AACTA Award for Best Guest or Supporting Actress in a Television Drama for the 2015 miniseries Peter Allen: Not the Boy Next Door.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lisa McCune</span> Australian actress

Lisa McCune is an Australian actress, known for her role in TV series Blue Heelers as Senior Constable Maggie Doyle, and in Sea Patrol as Lieutenant Kate McGregor RAN. She has won four Gold Logie Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renée Taylor</span> American actress (born 1933)

Renée Adorée Taylor is an American actress, screenwriter, playwright, producer and director. Taylor was nominated for an Academy Award for co-writing the screenplay for the film Lovers and Other Strangers (1970). She also played Sylvia Fine on the television sitcom The Nanny (1993–1999).

<i>Noah and Saskia</i> Australian childrens television series

Noah and Saskia is a 13-episode TV program initiated, developed and produced by Patricia Edgar for the Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF) and the BBC as she stepped down after 20 years as Founding Director of the ACTF. The 13 x 24-minute drama series involves an Australian teenage girl, Saskia, and her internet-based relationship with Noah, a teenage boy living in the United Kingdom. The two characters project their ideal selves to each other in a virtual world, and in the process get a little closer to reaching their ideals in the real one. The show is about the power of someone's essence and how someone can touch you from 10,000 miles away, and change your whole life. Noah & Saskia speaks directly to today's young people about the technologies which are changing the way we communicate.

"I wanted one more crack at producing the type of television I had always believed in; not a formulaic soap-style series; not a co-produced mid-Pacific blancmange, but something that really spoke to adolescents about the issues that were on their minds," Patricia Edgar, Bloodbath: a memoir of Australian Television, pg.399. "The Internet was the place to set much of the action as this allowed for a modern, contemporary story, which would be new territory for drama. The other appeal of online chat spaces was that they give the characters opportunities to express themselves in multiple ways. The Net is a space where young people are much more at home than their parents and increasingly it will be their world", Patricia Edgar.

Andrea Lauren Gibbs is an Australian comedian, actress and radio presenter. She presents Weekends with Andrea Gibbs on ABC Local Radio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gugu Mbatha-Raw</span> British actress

Gugulethu Sophia Mbatha-Raw is a British actress who is known for her performances on stage and screen. In 2017 she was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for services to drama. In February 2021, Mbatha-Raw was appointed a global Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aisling Walsh</span> Irish screenwriter and director (born 1958)

Aisling Walsh is an Irish screenwriter and director. Her work has screened at festivals around the world and she has won several accolades, including a BAFTA TV Award for Room at the Top (2012) as well as an Irish Film and Television Award and a Canadian Screen Award for her direction of Maudie (2016). She is known for her "unflinching honest portrayals of a Catholic Irish society".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samantha Lang</span> Australian film director

Samantha Lang is an Australian film director and screenwriter. Her production company is Handmaid Media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gracie Otto</span> Australian filmmaker (born 1987)

Gracie Otto is an Australian filmmaker and actor. She made her feature-length directing debut with the 2013 documentary The Last Impresario about prolific British theatre impresario and film producer Michael White. She has also directed a variety of screen content such as television commercial videos (TCVs), shorts, television series, feature films and documentaries.

Amanda Brotchie, born in Melbourne, Victoria), is an Australian director known for Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018), Mr Black (2019), Girlboss (2017), and Lowdown (2010-2012). She is also a writer, producer and linguist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophie Lowe</span> British-born Australian actress and singer-songwriter

Sophie Lowe is a British-born Australian actress and singer-songwriter. She is known for appearing in films such as Beautiful Kate, Autumn Blood, After the Dark, Adore, Road Kill, Above Suspicion, Medieval and Blow the Man Down, and starring in the television series Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, The Slap, The Returned, and The Beautiful Lie.

Touch the Sun is a series of television films commissioned by Patricia Edgar for the Australian Children's Television Foundation. It was to be the ACTF's project for the Australian Bicentenary celebrations in 1988. The Australian Bicentennial Authority named Touch the Sun as the Bicentenary official children's series for 1988. Edgar's plan was to locate stories in every state in Australia showing the diversity of the Australian landscape. It was directed, written and produced by some of the top film and tv personnel in Australia. Patricia Edgar was Executive Producer of the show and it was backed by the ABC, Australian Film Commission, the New South Wales Film Corporation, the South Australian Film and Television Financing Fund, the South Australian Film Corporation, Film Victoria and the French distribution company Revcom International. National Trustees agreed to act as investor representatives for Touch the Sun in 1986 and the series was offered to the Australian Television networks for telecast in 1988. The $7.5 million necessary for production of this unique children’s series for the Bicentennial year was fully subscribed by 30th June 1987. The ABC paid $2 million for the Australian rights to Touch the Sun, the most the ABC had ever spent to acquire the rights to a program.

<i>The Heights</i> (Australian TV series) Australian television series

The Heights is an Australian television drama series which premiered on ABC on 22 February 2019. In August 2019, the series was renewed for a second season of 30 episodes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophie Hyde</span> Australian film producer, writer and director

Sophie Hyde is an Australian film director, writer, and producer based in Adelaide, South Australia. She is co-founder of Closer Productions and known for her award-winning debut fiction film, 52 Tuesdays (2013) and the comedy drama Animals (2019). She has also made several documentaries, including Life in Movement (2011), a documentary about dancer and choreographer Tanja Liedtke, and television series, such as The Hunting (2019). Her latest film, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, premiered at the Sundance Festival on 23 January 2022, and was released on Hulu and in cinemas in the UK and Australia.

Natasha Wanganeen is an Aboriginal Australian actress. She is known for her starring role in the 2002 feature film Rabbit Proof Fence, aged 15, and numerous television roles. Her debut film as co-writer and co-producer is the 2022 short film, an Indigenous sci-fi drama entitled Bunker: The Last Fleet, about an alien invasion of Australia, in which she also takes the lead role.

Aftertaste is an Australian television comedy series on ABC TV, first airing on 3 February 2021. It is created by Julie De Fina and Matthew Bate, produced by Closer Productions. The first season was directed by Jonathan Brough, and the second, airing from 20 July 2022, by Renée Webster.

Beck Cole is an Australian filmmaker of the Warramungu and Luritja nations. She is known for her work on numerous TV series, including First Australians, Grace Beside Me, Black Comedy and Wentworth, as well as documentaries and short films. She is based in Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory.

Asher Yasbincek is an Australian actress, known for her role as Harper McLean in the Netflix series Heartbreak High. Yasbincek made her television debut in the recurring role of Rose in serial drama The Heights. She then appeared in the comedy-drama film Rams (2020) and had a supporting role in How to Please a Woman (2022). Yasbincek secured her breakthrough role in Heartbreak High while she was working in traffic control. She shaved her head on-screen for the role in one of her first scenes. For her portrayal of Harper, Yasbincek received a nomination for the AACTA Audience Choice Award for Best Actress. She also stars in the four-part miniseries Riptide as Hannah Lane.

References

  1. 1 2 "Renée Webster". Cinema Australia. 17 May 2022. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  2. Renée Webster at IMDb
  3. "Streetsmartz series 1 (2005) - The Screen Guide". Screen Australia . Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  4. 1 2 Renée Webster at IMDb
  5. 1 2 3 "Renee Webster". CinefestOZ Film Festival. 19 August 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  6. Keast, Jackie (15 May 2022). "With 'How To Please A Woman', Renée Webster puts the audience first". IF Magazine . Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  7. Hall, Sandra (17 May 2022). "Review: How to Please a Woman". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  8. "How to watch How To Please A Woman in Australia". Flicks.com.au. 19 May 2022. Retrieved 19 May 2022.