
Directing
Bruce Beresford
Born 1940-08-16 · Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Bruce Beresford (/ˈbɛrɪsfərd/; born 16 August 1940) is an Australian film director, opera director, screenwriter, and producer. He began his career during the Australian New Wave, and has made more than 30 feature films over a 50-year career, both locally and internationally in the United States. He is a two-time Academy Award nominee and a four-time AACTA/AFI Awards winner out of 10 total nominations. Beresford's films include Breaker Morant (1980), Tender Mercies (1983), Crimes of the Heart (1986), Driving Miss Daisy (1989) – which won four Oscars including Best Picture, Black Robe (1991), Silent Fall (1994), Double Jeopardy (1999), Mao's Last Dancer (2009), and Ladies in Black (2018). He was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay for Breaker Morant and Best Director for Tender Mercies. He won AACTA/AFI Awards – Best Direction (2) for Don's Party (1976) and Breaker Morant, and Best Screenplay (2) for Breaker Morant and The Fringe Dwellers (1986). In addition, four of Beresford's films have been nominated for the Palme d'Or, and four have been nominated for the Golden Bear. He has also been nominated for two BAFTA Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Directors Guild of America Award, and won a Genie Award. Description above from the Wikipedia article Bruce Beresford, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Acting credits
6.7As Australian cinema broke through to international audiences in the 1970s through respected art house films like Peter Weir's "Picnic At Hanging Rock," a new underground of low-budget exploitation filmmakers were turning out considerably less highbrow fare. Documentary filmmaker Mark Hartley explores this unbridled era of sex and violence, complete with clips from some of the scene's most outrageous flicks and interviews with the renegade filmmakers themselves.
Not Quite Hollywood
2008
7.0A character portrait of the enigmatic comedian Barry Humphries on his most recent Australian tour and an examination of the connections to his two most famous alter egos, Dame Edna and Sir Les Patterson. Interviews include Bruce Beresford and Geoffrey Rush.
The Man Inside Dame Edna
2008
First there was ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’, then ‘My Brilliant Career’, and now best of all ‘The Getting of Wisdom’. It is incomparably moving and powerful.
Telling Schoolgirl Tales: The Making of 'The Getting of Wisdom’
2006
5.5On the night of the 1969 federal election, Don Henderson invites a group of friends to celebrate a predicted Labor Party victory, much to the dismay of his wife, Kath. The Hendersons and their nine guests drink, joke, make love, and fight, all while coming to terms with their individual struggles in life.
Don's Party
1976
A follow-up special to ABC's 1987 "The Ultimate Stuntman: A Tribute to Dar Robinson." The program includes clips of great stunts, interviews with celebrities and profiles of legendary stuntpeople.
The World's Greatest Stunts: A Tribute to Hollywood Stuntmen
1988
NRThe Sounds of Aus tells the story of the Australian accent: how it came about, how it has evolved over two hundred years of colonial and cultural history, and how it is today.
The Sounds of Aus
2007
5.4Barry McKenzie's Aunt Edna is kidnapped by Count Von Plasma, the vampire head of an isolated Eastern European dictatorship who mistakes her for the Queen of England and thinks that kidnapping her will draw tourists to his country. Barry and his mates set out to rescue her and bring her back to Australia.
Barry McKenzie Holds His Own
1974
7.0Behind the scenes of the making of Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
Miss Daisy's Journey: From Stage to Screen
2003
4.0A feature length documentary about Australian popular entertainment across 150 years; of Skating and Dancing, Vaudeville and Moving Pictures.
At the Coliseum Deluxe
2019
6.0This is a lovely documentary that pays tribute to the career of star Jessica Tandy, as the filmmakers recall what it was like to work with this marvelous actress. This featurette is fairly short, but it offers fine insight, history and heart
Jessica Tandy: Theatre Legend to Screen Star
2003
Behind the camera
6.6Libby Parsons, wrongly convicted of her husband Nick's murder, thinks he is still alive. She survives the long years in prison with two burning desires sustaining her -- finding her son and solving the mystery that destroyed her once-happy life. Standing between her and her quest, however, is her parole officer, Travis Lehman. Libby poses a challenge to the cynical officer, one that forces him to face up to his own failings while pitting him against his superior and law enforcement colleagues, as she plunges into a desperate fight for justice, survival, and revenge.
Double Jeopardy
1999
7.2The story of an old Jewish widow named Daisy Werthan and her relationship with her black chauffeur, Hoke. From an initial mere work relationship grew in 25 years a strong friendship between the two very different characters, in a time when those types of relationships were shunned.
Driving Miss Daisy
1989
6.7Adapted from the bestselling novel by Madeleine St John, Ladies in Black is an alluring and tender-hearted comedy drama about the lives of a group of department store employees in 1959 Sydney.
Ladies in Black
2018
6.7Adapted from the bestselling novel by Madeleine St John, Ladies in Black is an alluring and tender-hearted comedy drama about the lives of a group of department store employees in 1959 Sydney.
Ladies in Black
2018
7.4A unique friendship develops when a little girl and her dying mother inherit a cook - Mr. Church. What begins as an arrangement that should only last six months, instead spans fifteen years.
Mr. Church
2016
5.4Stephen Seary, a stage designer, returns to Australia to visit his dying mother, but a quick trip descends into family tensions, past conflicts, and romantic complications, jeopardizing his return to Europe and the opera that awaits.
The Travellers
2025
5.4Stephen Seary, a stage designer, returns to Australia to visit his dying mother, but a quick trip descends into family tensions, past conflicts, and romantic complications, jeopardizing his return to Europe and the opera that awaits.
The Travellers
2025
5.8Attempting to recover from a recent family trauma by escaping into the woods for a peaceful hiking trip, an ex-lawman and his young son stumble across a dangerous contract killer.
The Contract
2006
6.8Alcoholic former country singer Mac Sledge makes friends with a young widow and her son. The friendship enables him to find inspiration to resume his career.
Tender Mercies
1983
5.7Upon taking a new job, young lawyer Rick Hayes is assigned to the clemency case of Cindy Liggett, a woman convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death. As Hayes investigates the background for her case, the two begin to form a deep friendship, while the date for her execution draws nearer.
Last Dance
1996
5.4A writer of BAD detective novels is in full writers' block. He pretends to be the alibi of a beautiful woman who was arrested for murder at first thinking her innocent, but as she shows more and more interesting abilities (such as knife throwing) he begins to doubt his first assessment.
Her Alibi
1989
7.1During the Boer War, three Australian lieutenants are on trial for shooting Boer prisoners. Though they acted under orders, they are being used as scapegoats by the General Staff, who hopes to distance themselves from the irregular practices of the war. The trial does not progress as smoothly as expected by the General Staff, as the defence puts up a strong fight in the courtroom.
Breaker Morant
1980
7.1During the Boer War, three Australian lieutenants are on trial for shooting Boer prisoners. Though they acted under orders, they are being used as scapegoats by the General Staff, who hopes to distance themselves from the irregular practices of the war. The trial does not progress as smoothly as expected by the General Staff, as the defence puts up a strong fight in the courtroom.
Breaker Morant
1980
6.7In 1914, the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa invites studios to shoot his actual battles against Porfírio Diaz army to raise funds for financing guns and ammunition. The Mutual Film Corporation, through producer D.W. Griffith, interests for the proposition and sends the filmmaker Frank Thayer to negotiate a contract with Pancho Villa himself.
And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself
2003
5.8A conservative lawyer named Diane takes her two teenage children Jake and Zoe to meet their estranged, hippie grandmother in Woodstock after her husband asks for a divorce.
Peace, Love & Misunderstanding
2011
6.3A group of English, American, Dutch and Australian women creates a vocal orchestra while being imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp on Sumatra during World War II.
Paradise Road
1997
6.3A group of English, American, Dutch and Australian women creates a vocal orchestra while being imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp on Sumatra during World War II.
Paradise Road
1997
5.7This is a movie about the life of Israel's king David.
King David
1985
6.5Missionary Father LaForgue travels to the New World in hopes of converting Algonquin Indians to Catholicism. Accepted, though warily, by the Indians, LaForgue travels with the Indians using his strict Catholic rules and ideals to try and impose his religion.
Black Robe
1991
6.4Desmond Doyle is devastated when his wife abandons their family on the day after Christmas. His unemployment, and the fact that there is no woman in the house to care for the children—Evelyn, Dermot and Maurice—make it clear to the authorities this is an untenable situation. The Catholic Church and the Irish courts decide to put the Doyle children into Church-run orphanages.
Evelyn
2002
6.6At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao's cultural delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet. In 1979, during a cultural exchange to Texas, he falls in love with an American woman. Two years later, he managed to defect and went on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet and as a principal artist with the Australian Ballet.
Mao’s Last Dancer
2009
6.8A woman deals with the toxic water scandal in Flint, Michigan, and the effect it has on her family.
Flint
2017
5.3Having seen the double murder of his parents, autistic youth Tim Warden is sent to therapy with controversial therapist Dr. Jake Rainer. Jake tries to probe the silent child about what he saw, but he gets more details about the Wardens' household dynamics from Tim's teenage sister, Sylvie. As he spends more time with the siblings, Jake learns that the Wardens' marriage was not as perfect as it seemed, and he uncovers other new details that might help solve the crime.
Silent Fall
1994
5.3Ten short pieces directed by ten different directors, including Ken Russell, Jean-Luc Godard, Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford, and Nicolas Roeg. Each short uses an aria as soundtrack/sound, and is an interpretation of the particular aria.
Aria
1987