Warwick Thornton
Warwick Thornton is a prominent Australian filmmaker and director of Kaytetye Aboriginal descent, born on July 23, 1970, in Alice Springs, Northern Territory. Growing up in a culturally rich environment influenced by his mother, Freda Glynn, a pioneering media specialist, Thornton developed a strong appreciation for art and film. He began his filmmaking journey with the 2005 short film "Green Bush," which gained recognition at various film festivals.
Thornton's most notable works include "Samson & Delilah" (2009), which earned him the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and "Sweet Country" (2017), which received critical acclaim and several awards, including the Special Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival. His documentaries, such as "First Australians" (2006), have played a significant role in portraying Indigenous history and culture, making them accessible to broader audiences.
In 2023, he released "The New Boy," collaborating with acclaimed actress Cate Blanchett. Throughout his career, Thornton has become a role model for many Indigenous filmmakers, using his platform to highlight Indigenous issues and promote cultural understanding. His personal experiences, enriched by his family background and relationships, have also influenced his artistic vision.
Warwick Thornton
Film director and cinematographer
- Born: July 23, 1970
- Birthplace: Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
Significance: Warwick Thornton is an Australian Indigenous film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. He is best known for his 2009 film Samson and Delilah, which won multiple awards.
Background
Warwick Thornton was born on July 23, 1970, in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia. He is Kaytetye Aboriginal. His mother was Freda Glynn, a photographer and media specialist. She co-founded the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association Group of Companies (CAAMA). She was also influential in the media industry as the director of Imparja Television for the first ten years of its operation.
Thornton and his sister, Erica Glynn, grew up with an appreciation for art and film. Erica went on to become an independent filmmaker, writing, producing, and directing documentaries. At the age of thirteen, Thornton went to school in New Norcia, Western Australia, at the town’s monastic school.
As a teen, he also had a job as a DJ for a local Alice Springs radio station owned by CAAMA. When the radio station became a film unit, he was able to learn about filmmaking from watching the workers pack up their equipment and then go film. Eventually, he had an opportunity to make his own film, Green Bush, which was later produced by CAAMA in 2005.
After graduating high school, he decided to attend Australian Film and Television and Radio School, where he received a degree in Arts and Screen Production. There, he found his passion as a director of photography and continued making film shorts.
Life’s Work
Thornton found success with his film Green Bush at film festivals, such as the Berlin International Film Festival. This encouraged him to continue making films and exploring cinematography and writing.
In 1999, he met Beck Cole, a fellow filmmaker whom he began a personal relationship with and would later marry. In 2004, the two began working together with producer Kath Shelper. Many of the documentary films he worked on as a cinematographer were directed by Cole, such as Wirriya: Small Boy in 2004, The Lore of Love in 2005, and Plains Empty in 2006. In 2006, they also worked on a television series of seven episodes that were directed by Beck and Rachel Perkins called First Australians. The series chronicled the history of Australia from the perspective of the Aboriginal Australians and the Torres Strait Islander people. The series won multiple awards and became the highest-selling educational series in Australia.
In 2007, Thornton’s short film, Nana,was featured at multiple film festivals and won several awards, including Best Short Film at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2009, Thornton wrote, directed, and filmed his first-ever feature film, Samson & Delilah. It featured first-time Indigenous actors Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson. The plot was about two Indigenous teens living in poverty who fall in love, steal a car, and escape to Alice Springs. It was met with critical acclaim and won several awards, including the Camera d’Or award for best first feature film at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.
In 2010, he directed the documentary art + soul, which was a cultural project by the Yiribana Gallery art curator Hatti Perkins. The film ran during an exhibition in 2011 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales along with artwork from the gallery’s Aboriginal Art Collection. The film looked at the diversity and complexity of Indigenous culture in Australia. In 2012, Thornton worked on another art installation featuring Indigenous culture, Mother Courage, in partnership with Documenta, an art exhibition in Germany that takes place every five years, and the Australian Centre for Moving Image (ACMI).
In 2017, Thornton directed another award-winning feature film, Sweet Country. This movie was set in 1929 in the outback of the Northern Territory. Based on a series of true events, it chronicled the tension between White settlers and Indigenous peoples in the period between World War I and World War II. It won several film festival awards, including the Special Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival and the Best Film award at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
His 2023 film, The New Boy, allowed him to collaborate again with Kath Shelper, and to work with Hollywood actress Cate Blanchett. It was about the plight of a young Indigenous orphan boy who overcame bullying at school through his non-violent approach to inciting change.
Impact
Thornton has been a role model for many Indigenous people in his career as a film maker, director, and cinematographer. In addition, his coverage of Indigenous history in documentaries and his perspective of Indigenous issues in his films has brought the importance of Indigenous culture to a wider audience.
Personal Life
Thornton met filmmaker Beck Cole in 1999 and they married. They have a daughter, Luka May, who is an actress. The couple separated in 2018. Thornton also has two children from previous relationships, Dylan River, who is also a filmmaker and has worked with his father, and a daughter Rona.
Principal Works
Flat, 2001
Green Bush, 2005
First Australians, 2006
Nana, 2007
Samson and Delilah, 2009
art +soul, 2010
Sweet Country, 2017
The New Boy, 2023
Bibliography
Brady-Brown, Annabel. “Director Warwick Thornton and star Cate Blanchett on their long-awaited collaboration The New Boy.” ABC, 29 June 2023, www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-29/the-new-boy-warwick-thornton-cate-blanchett-interview/102523932. Accessed 4 July 2023.
Crawford, Ashley. “Warwick Thornton” Artist Profile, 2018, artistprofile.com.au/warwick-thornton/. Accessed 4 July 2023.
Gonzalez, Miguel. “Warwick Thornton on the Darkside.” NFSA, 2013, www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/darkside-force. Accessed 4 July 2023.
Loebenstein, Ghita. “Warwick Thornton x Light.” ACMI, 2022, www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/warwick-thornton-light/. Accessed 4 July 2023.
“Warwick Thornton.” Filming Aboriginal Australia, filmingaboriginaltourism.com/the-directors/warwick-thornton/. Accessed 4 July 2023.
“Warwick Thornton.” National Portrait Gallery, 2021, www.portrait.gov.au/people/warwick-thornton-1970. Accessed 4 July 2023.
“Warwick Thornton.” TMDB, 2023 www.themoviedb.org/person/94342-warwick-thornton?language=en-US. Accessed 4 July 2023.
“Warwick Thornton: Filmmaker.” Australian of the Year, 2010. australianoftheyear.org.au/recipients/warwick-thornton. Accessed 4 July 2023.