
Directing
Warwick Thornton
Born
1970-07-23 (56)
Place of birth
Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
Known for
Directing
Credits
41 titles
Warwick Thornton (born 23 July, 1970; Alice Springs) 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. Thornton is a Kaytetye man born and raised in Alice Springs. His mother Freda Glynn co-founded and was the first director of the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) and was the director of Imparja Television for its first 10 years. At 13, Thornton was sent to school in Australia's only monastic town, New Norcia, West…
Known for
6.9When there is a mysterious disappearance on an outback cattle station, Detective Jay Swan is assigned to investigate. Working with local cop Emma James, Jay’s investigation uncovers a past injustice that threatens the fabric of the whole community.
Mystery Road
2018
6.2In a remote South-Australian desert mining town — a hive for the last vampire stronghold — two Indigenous Australian hunters embark on a quest to battle the last colony of vampires.
Firebite
2021
6.7Filmmaker Warwick Thornton's international success has come at a personal cost. He has reached a crossroad in his life and something has to change. He has chosen to try giving up life in the fast lane for a while, to go it alone, on an isolated beach in one of the most beautiful yet brutal environments in the world, to see if he can transform and heal his life.
The Beach
2020
NRAward-winning journalist and unabashed arts fan Virginia Trioli explores the essence of creativity with some of Australia's greatest artistic minds.
Creative Types with Virginia Trioli
2024
NRAustralia was colonized in the late 1700s. Pemulwuy, a man of the Bidjigal tribes — from the region that is today modern-day Sydney — led a 12-year resistance against British settlers moving into his people’s traditional lands.
First Warrior
—
6.6In 1929, an Australian Aboriginal stockman kills a white station owner in self-defense and goes on the lam, pursued by a posse.
Sweet Country
2018
Film credits
Series credits
6.9When there is a mysterious disappearance on an outback cattle station, Detective Jay Swan is assigned to investigate. Working with local cop Emma James, Jay’s investigation uncovers a past injustice that threatens the fabric of the whole community.
Mystery Road
2018
6.2In a remote South-Australian desert mining town — a hive for the last vampire stronghold — two Indigenous Australian hunters embark on a quest to battle the last colony of vampires.
Firebite
2021
6.7Filmmaker Warwick Thornton's international success has come at a personal cost. He has reached a crossroad in his life and something has to change. He has chosen to try giving up life in the fast lane for a while, to go it alone, on an isolated beach in one of the most beautiful yet brutal environments in the world, to see if he can transform and heal his life.
The Beach
2020
NRAward-winning journalist and unabashed arts fan Virginia Trioli explores the essence of creativity with some of Australia's greatest artistic minds.
Creative Types with Virginia Trioli
2024
Behind the camera
NRAustralia was colonized in the late 1700s. Pemulwuy, a man of the Bidjigal tribes — from the region that is today modern-day Sydney — led a 12-year resistance against British settlers moving into his people’s traditional lands.
First Warrior
—
6.6In 1929, an Australian Aboriginal stockman kills a white station owner in self-defense and goes on the lam, pursued by a posse.
Sweet Country
2018
5.7Seventeen talented Australian directors from diverse artistic disciplines each create a chapter of the hauntingly beautiful novel by multi award-winning author Tim Winton. The linking and overlapping stories explore the extraordinary turning points in ordinary people’s lives in a stunning portrait of a small coastal community. As characters face second thoughts and regret, relationships irretrievably alter, resolves are made or broken, and lives change direction forever.
The Turning
2013
5.7Seventeen talented Australian directors from diverse artistic disciplines each create a chapter of the hauntingly beautiful novel by multi award-winning author Tim Winton. The linking and overlapping stories explore the extraordinary turning points in ordinary people’s lives in a stunning portrait of a small coastal community. As characters face second thoughts and regret, relationships irretrievably alter, resolves are made or broken, and lives change direction forever.
The Turning
2013
6.3Samson, a cheeky 15-year-old boy, and Delilah, live in an isolated Aboriginal community in the Central Australian desert. The two teenagers soon discover that life outside the community can be cruel. Lost, unwanted and alone they discover that life isn’t always fair, but love never judges.
Samson and Delilah
2009
6.3Samson, a cheeky 15-year-old boy, and Delilah, live in an isolated Aboriginal community in the Central Australian desert. The two teenagers soon discover that life outside the community can be cruel. Lost, unwanted and alone they discover that life isn’t always fair, but love never judges.
Samson and Delilah
2009
6.0In a remote monastery in 1940s Australia, a mission for Aboriginal children is run by a renegade nun, Sister Eileen. A new charge is delivered in the dead of night – a boy who appears to have special powers. When the monastery takes possession of a precious relic, a large carving of Christ on the cross, the new boy encounters Jesus for the first time and is transfixed. However, the boy’s Indigenous spiritual life does not gel with the mission’s Christianity and his mysterious power becomes a threat. Sister Eileen is faced with a choice between the traditions of her faith and the truth embodied in the boy, in this story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival.
The New Boy
2023
6.0In a remote monastery in 1940s Australia, a mission for Aboriginal children is run by a renegade nun, Sister Eileen. A new charge is delivered in the dead of night – a boy who appears to have special powers. When the monastery takes possession of a precious relic, a large carving of Christ on the cross, the new boy encounters Jesus for the first time and is transfixed. However, the boy’s Indigenous spiritual life does not gel with the mission’s Christianity and his mysterious power becomes a threat. Sister Eileen is faced with a choice between the traditions of her faith and the truth embodied in the boy, in this story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival.
The New Boy
2023
5.01930s Australia, the colonial frontier: two swaggering outlaws roll into a mining town and unleash a wave of cruelty, leading three kids to break free from their white masters and set off across the 'sweet country' of central Australia in search of a safe home.
Wolfram
2026
9.0Writer and Director Warwick Thornton has assembled a collection of the most poignant, sad, funny and absurd ghost stories from around Australia. He will bring them to life with the help of some of Australia's most iconic actors as the storytellers.
The Darkside
2013
9.0Writer and Director Warwick Thornton has assembled a collection of the most poignant, sad, funny and absurd ghost stories from around Australia. He will bring them to life with the help of some of Australia's most iconic actors as the storytellers.
The Darkside
2013
5.7The first of four installments in the groundbreaking Heartbeat of the World anthology film series. Comprised of several short films by some of the world's most exciting directors, Words with Gods follows the theme of religion - specifically as it relates to an individual's relationship with his/her god or gods...or the lack thereof. In Words with Gods, each director recounts a narrative centered around human fragility, as well as environmental and cultural crises involving specific religions with which each has a personal relationship; including early Aboriginal Spirituality, Umbanda, Buddhism, the Abrahamic faiths, Hinduism, and Atheism. An animated sequence by Mexican animator Maribel Martinez is woven through each of the film segments, with each segment narratively connected as a feature-length film.
Words with Gods
2014
5.7The first of four installments in the groundbreaking Heartbeat of the World anthology film series. Comprised of several short films by some of the world's most exciting directors, Words with Gods follows the theme of religion - specifically as it relates to an individual's relationship with his/her god or gods...or the lack thereof. In Words with Gods, each director recounts a narrative centered around human fragility, as well as environmental and cultural crises involving specific religions with which each has a personal relationship; including early Aboriginal Spirituality, Umbanda, Buddhism, the Abrahamic faiths, Hinduism, and Atheism. An animated sequence by Mexican animator Maribel Martinez is woven through each of the film segments, with each segment narratively connected as a feature-length film.
Words with Gods
2014
8.5An Australian Aboriginal DJ realizes that his job at the country radio station is about more than just playing music.
Green Bush
2005
8.5An Australian Aboriginal DJ realizes that his job at the country radio station is about more than just playing music.
Green Bush
2005
6.7Filmmaker Warwick Thornton investigates our relationship to the Southern Cross, in this fun and thought provoking ride through Australia's cultural and political landscape.
We Don't Need a Map
2017
6.7Filmmaker Warwick Thornton investigates our relationship to the Southern Cross, in this fun and thought provoking ride through Australia's cultural and political landscape.
We Don't Need a Map
2017
Paddy finds there are two separate laws, the white and the black.
From Sand to Celluloid: Payback
1996
Paddy finds there are two separate laws, the white and the black.
From Sand to Celluloid: Payback
1996
6.2Nana’s granddaughter thinks Nana’s pretty special. She loves her Nana because she helps the old people, she’s a good painter and other people love her too. Nana’s got everyone under control.
Nana
2007
6.2Nana’s granddaughter thinks Nana’s pretty special. She loves her Nana because she helps the old people, she’s a good painter and other people love her too. Nana’s got everyone under control.
Nana
2007
5.5A white collector of Aboriginal art gets a shock when the Mimi sculpture she purchased comes to life.
Mimi
2002
5.5A white collector of Aboriginal art gets a shock when the Mimi sculpture she purchased comes to life.
Mimi
2002
This beautiful documentary is a character study of an old man named Norman Hayes Jagamarra who gave up droving and came to Coober Pedy decades ago to work as an opal-miner.
The Old Man and the Inland Sea
2005
This beautiful documentary is a character study of an old man named Norman Hayes Jagamarra who gave up droving and came to Coober Pedy decades ago to work as an opal-miner.
The Old Man and the Inland Sea
2005
1910 Swedish scientist, Eric Mjoberg, led an expedition to Australia. DARK SCIENCE travels in Mjoberg's footsteps to visit the communities he robbed, and gives a contemporary Indigenous perspective for return of the remains and artifacts.
Dark Science
2008
No synopsis available yet.
Stranded
2011
No synopsis available yet.
The Way of the Ngangkari
2015
NRIn 1955, filmmaker Chauvel debuted Jedda. His star was a young Arrernte woman from Alice Springs named Ngarla Kunoth, or Rosalie. Her story, the story of what happened before and after Chauvel's film, is told in Rosalie's Journey.
Rosalie's Journey
2003
NRIn 1955, filmmaker Chauvel debuted Jedda. His star was a young Arrernte woman from Alice Springs named Ngarla Kunoth, or Rosalie. Her story, the story of what happened before and after Chauvel's film, is told in Rosalie's Journey.
Rosalie's Journey
2003
NRMeth Kelly explores how Australia’s colonial frontier narrative has been shaped by the imaginary heroic actions of the cult figure Ned Kelly. Through a video work projected in one of the shadowy tunnels of the ex-convict structures at Cockatoo Island, this work questions the legitimacy of Kelly’s hero status through a modern reinterpretation of his moral persona. Thornton skews the national narrative rooted in the romance of a Western, by transforming Kelly into a “meth head robbing a 7 Eleven”, placing him in a banal (sub)urban delinquent realm, far removed from cult status. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney.
Meth Kelly
2020
WILLIGAN'S FITZROY takes us to the small Aboriginal community of Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia. Through the eyes of the local Aboriginal Employment Coordinator, Joe Ross, we take an informal journey into the world of the Bunaba tribe, their lives, their culture and the modern infrastructures they are developing to make their community both financially and culturally viable. One thing that has long united the Bunuba people is the fight to stop their beloved Fitzroy River from becoming a massive dam project. We gain an inkling into the enormous spiritual and economic losses at stake for this remote Kimberley town.
Willigan's Fitzroy
2000
No synopsis available yet.
Ancient Eye
2017
Tnorala is the Aboriginal name for Gosse's Bluff, a dramatic meteorite impact crater set in a vast plain 175km west of Alice Springs. This significant dreaming site for Western Arrernte people is steeped in mystery and tragedy. The story of its creation and the events that occurred there are narrated to the camera by Aunty Mavis Malbunka, one of the traditional story-tellers for the place.
Tnorala - Baby Falling
2007
Burning Daylight is a dance/film project. The performance is set from late one night until dawn in a transit zone outside a notorious pub on a Broome-style Karaoke night. A series of contemporary dance scenes unfold expressing the...
Burning Daylight
2007

