BRUCE BERESFORD (Director) has one of the highest reputations enjoyed by any director working in cinema today, thanks to a talent for versatile, engaging storytelling and a natural gift with actors.
In 1975, Don’s Party won Beresford the Best Director award from the Australian Film Institute. His next film, The Getting of Wisdom, was selected for Director’s Fortnight at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival.
In 1980 he was nominated for an Academy Award® for his screenplay Breaker Morant. The film was also selected for competition at the Cannes Film Festival and won eleven Australian Film Institute Awards, including Best Director and Best Screenplay.
In 1982, Beresford received his second Academy Award® nomination as Best Director for Tender Mercies starring Robert Duvall. The film won Academy Awards® for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay. It was also selected for competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The Fringe Dwellers, written and directed by Beresford and produced by Sue Milliken, was selected for competition at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival and won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Screenplay.
In 1987, Beresford’s Crimes of the Heart was nominated for three Academy Awards®. The film starred Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, Sissy Spacek and Sam Shephard.
In 1990, Beresford directed Mister Johnson, the first feature to be shot entirely in Nigeria. The film starred Pierce Brosnan and Edward Woodward and was selected as that year’s Royal Command Performance Film. Black Robe, the first Australian/Canadian co-production, followed. Produced by Robert Lantos and Sue Milliken, it was filmed in Quebec and won six Canadian Academy Awards, including Best Film and Best Director.
In 1990 Driving Miss Daisy, directed by Beresford, won four Academy Awards®, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Jessica Tandy. The National Board of Review also selected it as Best Film.
Most recent credits include Bride of the Wind, starring Jonathan Pryce and Vincent Perez; Double Jeopardy, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Ashley Judd; Paradise Road, starring Julianna Margulies, Cate Blanchett, Glenn Close and Francis McDormand; and Last Dance, starring Sharon Stone, Rob Morrow, Peter Gallagher and Randy Quaid.
Bruce Beresford was born in Australia and graduated from Sydney University in 1962. He also served as Film Officer for the British Film Institute Production Board from 1966-1971 and as a Film Advisor to the Arts Council of Great Britain.
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