Samantha Lang | |
|---|---|
 Lang at the Australian premiere of Brave , 2012 | |
| Born | London, England |
| Occupation(s) | Film director Screenwriter |
| Years active | 1993-present |
Samantha Lang is an Australian film director and screenwriter. Her production company is Handmaid Media.
Samantha Lang was born in London, England, migrating to Australia with her family at the age of 14. She attended North Sydney Girls' High School, earning her HSC in 1985. [1]
She grew up watching European films, and was very influenced by the film Hiroshima Mon Amour . [2]
In 1986, she spent a year at Universite de Grenoble, at Grenoble in France, studying French literature and linguistics. [1]
After beginning her university studies in 1987, in 1989 Lang was awarded a scholarship from Qantas to study at the Fachhochschule Wiesbaden in Germany for 10 months, where she focused on film and photography. She also attended FAMU, the Czech film school in Prague, [1] which she said was a "life-changing experience" for her. The government had been overthrown, as Vaclev Havel was coming to power, and young people who had previously been barred from attending university because of their parents' political leanings had just entered film school. [2] In 1990 she graduated with a Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Visual Communications from University of Technology Sydney. [1]
Lang graduated, in directing, from the Australian Film Television and Radio School in 1995. [1]
Lang's graduate short film, Audacious (1995 [3] ), earned her some recognition and won an award at the Sydney Film Festival. She directed an episode in Twisted Tales , a mystery drama TV series narrated by Bryan Brown, in 1996. [2]
Early in her career, Lang worked for advertising firm Cherub Pictures, directing television commercials. In the 1990s she did some stills photography and made some short films. [1]
Lang's first feature film The Well , an adaptation of the novel by Elizabeth Jolley written by Laura Jones, produced by Sandra Levy and starring Miranda Otto and Pamela Rabe, was selected for 30 film festivals, including Sundance Film Festival, [1] and was entered into competition for the Palme d'Or in the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. [4] [5]
The Monkey's Mask , her second film, is an international co-production 2000 thriller. It stars Susie Porter, Abbie Cornish, and Kelly McGillis. Porter plays a lesbian private detective who falls in love with a suspect (McGillis) in the disappearance of a young woman. The film is based on the 1994 verse novel of the same name by Australian poet Dorothy Porter.
L'idole (2002) was a French-language film, which starred Leelee Sobieski and James Hong. It was screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival; World of Women (WOW) Film Festival in Sydney; Toronto International Film Festival and Montreal World Film Festival in Canada; and in France, the Locarno Film Festival, Bordeaux International Festival of Women in Cinema and the Antipodean Film Festival in Saint Tropez. [1]
In 2017, Lang directed her first VR film, Prehistoric VR. [5] [6] that is installed at Australian Centre for Moving Image (ACMI)
Brown Lake (2021) is an artist moving image work of "eco-cinema", narrated by Mia Wasikowska, [7] that has been exhibited at Asia Pacific Triennale (2002) at GOMA, ACMI (2021) and other galleries and screening events.
Lang has in development an adaptation of the stage comedy Kill The Messenger by Nakkiah Lui. [5]
A six-part TV drama series, Night Games, based on the book by Anna Krien, is in development. [8] [9]
In April 2022, Screen Australia announced funding for Immersion , a science fiction drama TV series to be directed by Garth Davis ( Lion ), written by Matt Vesely ( Aftertaste ) and executive produced by Emile Sherman ( The King's Speech ) and Lang. [10]
Lang's production company is called Handmaid Media. [5]
Since 2019 and as of 2022 [update] , Lang is collaborating with Garth Davis, Emile Sherman and Iain Canning in a new production company called I AM THAT, as an executive producer and head of development. [9] [5] [11]
Lang was Head of Directing at AFTRS from 2010 to 2016, where she has mentored, supervised and lectured postgraduate film students. She has also mentored emerging filmmakers through Screen NSW, the HIVE Fund [5] at Adelaide Film Festival, [12] and Screen Australia. [5]
She was elected as President of the Australian Directors' Guild (ADG) in 2015, [5] relinquishing the role in December 2021 after serving for 12 years on the board in total. Under her leadership, there was huge growth in the number and diversity of members, and during this time she was one of the founding members of Screen Australia's Gender Matters program. [13] She was passionate about encouraging more diverse directors, wanting to "broaden and support directors across a greater breadth and depth, industrially, professionally and culturally". [14]
As of 2022 [update] , Lang submitted her thesis for a Doctor of Philosophy (Communications) in 'Posthuman Screen Poetics' at University of Technology Sydney. [5]
Lang's films have won many awards, including at the Australian Film Institute Awards and the Sydney Film Festival. Carlotta won three of the five AACTA Awards in the categories in which it was nominated. [5]
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 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.
The Adelaide Film Festival is a film festival usually held for two weeks in mid-October in cinemas in Adelaide, South Australia. Originally presented biennially in March from 2003, since 2013 AFF has been held in October. Subject to funding, the festival has staged full or briefer events in alternating years; some form of event has taken place every year since 2015. From 2022 it takes place annually. It has a strong focus on local South Australian and Australian produced content, with the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund (AFFIF) established to fund investment in Australian films.
Genevieve Lemon is an Australian actress and singer who has appeared in a number of Australian television series and international film, including a frequent collaboration with Jane Campion for Academy Award-winning The Piano (1993) and The Power of the Dog (2021), which earned her a Satellite Award as cast member and a Critic's Choice Awards nomination.
Alice Eva Lowe is an English actress, writer, director, and comedian. She has appeared as Dr. Haynes in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and Madeleine Wool/Liz Asher in Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. She wrote, directed, and starred in the 2016 film Prevenge and starred in and co-wrote the 2012 film Sightseers. She also starred in the educational children's television series Horrible Histories.
Laura Jones is an Australian screenwriter.
My Brilliant Career is a 1979 Australian period drama film directed by Gillian Armstrong, and starring Judy Davis, Sam Neill, and Wendy Hughes. Based on the 1901 novel of the same name by Miles Franklin, it follows a young woman in rural, late-19th-century Australia whose aspirations to become a writer are impeded first by her social circumstance, and later by a budding romance.
Gideon Obarzanek is an Australian choreographer, director, and performing arts curator, and founder of the dance company Chunky Move.
Warwick Thornton is an Australian film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. His debut feature film Samson and Delilah won the Caméra d'Or at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and the award for Best Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. He also won the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Film in 2017 for Sweet Country.
Claire McCarthy is an Australian screenwriter, director, producer, and visual artist.
See-Saw Films is a British-Australian film and television production company founded in 2008 by Iain Canning and Emile Sherman, with offices in London and Sydney. Their productions include The King's Speech, Top Of The Lake, Lion, The Power of the Dog, Slow Horses and the British teen series Heartstopper.
Justin Dallas Kurzel is an Australian film director. His films include Snowtown (2011), Macbeth (2015), Assassin's Creed (2016), True History of the Kelly Gang (2018), Nitram (2021) and The Order (2024).
Iain Alexander Canning is an English film and television producer best known for producing the film The King's Speech (2010), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Picture and the BAFTA award for Best Film and Best British Film, and for executive producing television series Top of the Lake, which was nominated for an Emmy, BAFTA and Golden Globe award. He has been nominated for 3 Academy Awards and won 1, nominated for 5 BAFTAs and won 3, and nominated for 2 Emmy Awards and won 1.
Shari Sebbens is an Aboriginal Australian actress and stage director, known for her debut film role in The Sapphires (2012), as well as many stage and television performances. After a two-year stint as resident director of the Sydney Theatre Company (STC), in 2023 she will be directing productions by STC and Griffin in Sydney, as well as Melbourne Theatre Company and Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne. She is on the board of Back to Back Theatre.
Emile Paul Sherman is an Australian film and television producer best known for producing the film The King's Speech (2010), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Picture and the BAFTA award for Best Film and Best British Film, and for executive producing television series Top of the Lake, which was nominated for an Emmy, BAFTA and Golden Globe award. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and won one; nominated for five BAFTAs and won three, and nominated for two Emmy Awards and won one.
Garth Davis is an Australian television, advertising, and film director, best known for directing the films Lion (2016), and biblical drama Mary Magdalene (2018). He earlier directed episodes of the series Top of the Lake (2013).
Nitram is a 2021 Australian biographical psychological drama film directed by Justin Kurzel from a screenplay by Shaun Grant. The film revolves around the life and behaviors of a mentally distressed young man called "Nitram", and the events leading to his involvement in the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania. The film stars Caleb Landry Jones, Judy Davis, Essie Davis and Anthony LaPaglia.
Catriona McKenzie is an Australian filmmaker. She is known for her film Satellite Boy and television series Kiki and Kitty and Wrong Kind of Black. Her production company is called Dark Horse.
Foe is a 2023 science fiction psychological thriller film directed by Australian director Garth Davis, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Canadian writer Iain Reid, based on Reid's 2018 novel of the same name. It’s an Australian-U.S. co-production filmed in Australia. Starring Saoirse Ronan, Paul Mescal, and Aaron Pierre, it concerns a young couple, Hen and Junior, having marital issues when Junior is called to serve on a space station.
Aaron Wilson is an Australian film director and screenwriter, known for the 2013 suspense war drama Canopy and the 2021 period drama Little Tornadoes.
Lilias Fraser was one of Australia’s first women documentary filmmakers. She made over 40 films between 1957 and 1996, including the early indigenous land rights documentary, This is Their Land. In 1999 Fraser was awarded the Cecil Holmes Award for Services to Directing.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
