Warwick Thornton

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, Western Australia, although he later declared he became angry with Christianity and did not consider himself religious. He graduated in cinematography from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.

Works

Mystery Road

When 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.

Release Date2018-06-03

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Charactersd Cluney

Episode Count3

Vote Count51

Firebite

In 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.

Release Date2021-12-16

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Charactersd

Episode Count4

Vote Count18

Bear

Jack means well, but sometimes good intentions have horrible consequences.

Release Date2011-05-21

Charactersd Ranger

Vote Count34

The Beach

Filmmaker 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.

Release Date2020-05-29

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Charactersd Self

Episode Count6

Vote Count3

Creative Types with Virginia Trioli

Award-winning journalist and unabashed arts fan Virginia Trioli explores the essence of creativity with some of Australia's greatest artistic minds.

Release Date2024-04-09

Charactersd Self

Episode Count1

We Don't Need a Map

Filmmaker Warwick Thornton investigates our relationship to the Southern Cross, in this fun and thought provoking ride through Australia's cultural and political landscape.

Release Date2017-06-07

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Charactersd Self

Vote Count3

Fast Charlie

When his aging mob boss is whacked, Charlie Swift, a loyal friend and hired gun, will stop at nothing to destroy the upcoming crew that took him out.

Release Date2023-12-08

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Vote Count230

First Australians

First Australians is an Australian historical documentary series produced by Blackfella Films over the course of six years, and first aired in October 2008. The documentary is part of a greater project that further consists of a hard-cover book, a community outreach program and a substantial website featuring over 200 mini-documentaries. The series chronicles the history of contemporary Australia, from the perspective of its first people, or Aborigines. The series is essentially a synthesis of well documented historical information. It relies heavily on archival documents and interpretations from historians and members of both the Indigenous and European community and leaders. The story begins in 1788 in Sydney, with the arrival of the First Fleet and ends in 1993 with Koiki Mabo's legal challenge to the foundation of Australia. The series comprises seven episodes in which it explores what unfolded when the oldest living culture in the world was confronted by the British Empire. It explores the lives of particular individuals and uses their stories as a vehicle to explain the larger situations of the time. It explains violent aspects of European settlement of Australia, such as killings, battles, wars, as well as acts of friendship and decency between the early European settlers and Indigenous Australians. Indigenous Australian history has until recently been clouded by the "great Australian silence" where ignorance of the real history of Australia can be seen as a way for non-Indigenous to hide shame for their own history. In this respect it has been controversial in that many of these stories have not been portrayed on Australian television before and the Indigenous Australian perspective of European settlement is confrontational for many.

Release Date2008-10-12

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Episode Count1

Blue Water Empire

A dramatised-documentary series giving a unique insight into the compelling history of the Torres Strait Islands, told through key stories by the men and women of the region.

Release Date2019-06-25

DepartmentCamera

JobAdditional Camera

Episode Count3

The Sapphires

It's 1968, and four young, talented Australian Aboriginal girls learn about love, friendship, and war when they entertain the US troops in Vietnam as singing group The Sapphires.

Release Date2012-08-08

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Vote Count212

Kangaroo

Ex TV personality, Chris Masterman, becomes stranded in an Outback town outside Alice Springs. There, he teams up with 12-year-old Indigenous girl Charlie. The pair form an unlikely friendship and work together to rescue and rehabilitate orphaned joeys in the remote but stunning Outback community - an endeavour that proves to be life-changing for them both.

Release Date2025-08-21

DepartmentDirecting

JobSecond Unit Director

Septembers of Shiraz

In this adaptation of the critically acclaimed debut novel by Iranian American author Dalia Sofer, a secular Jewish family is caught up in the maelstrom of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

Release Date2015-09-15

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Vote Count102

The Turning

Seventeen 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.

Release Date2013-09-25

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count30

Sweet Country

In 1929, an Australian Aboriginal stockman kills a white station owner in self-defense and goes on the lam, pursued by a posse.

Release Date2018-01-25

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count192

Words with Gods

The 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.

Release Date2014-11-20

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count8

Art+Soul

An "insider's" view of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and artists. Charismatic curator Hetti Perkins takes us on a journey of ideas and the imagination - revealing the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life and culture.

Release Date2010-10-07

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count3

Knot at Home Project

Release Date2006-05-24

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Episode Count1

The New Boy

In 1940s Australia, a nameless nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery overseen by a renegade nun, where his presence disturbs its delicately balanced world.

Release Date2023-07-06

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count21

Nganampa Anwernekenhe

TV Show Details

Release Date1987-04-30

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Episode Count1

Alchemy

Cult late-night music television, Alchemy was Australia's first television program focusing on dance and electronic music.

Release Date1998-05-06

DepartmentCamera

JobCamera Operator

Episode Count1

Samson and Delilah

Samson, 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.

Release Date2009-05-07

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count57

First Warrior

Australia 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.

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Coat of Arms

A Japanese tourist enjoying a relaxed car journey through the beauty and tranquility of the Australian desert collides with a violent moment in time. The bloodthirsty battle is over as quickly as it begins, vanishing eternally into the desert landscape.

Release Date2017-08-13

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Green Bush

An Australian Aboriginal DJ realizes that his job at the country radio station is about more than just playing music.

Release Date2005-01-21

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

The Darkside

Writer 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.

Release Date2013-11-27

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

Mimi

A white collector of Aboriginal art gets a shock when the Mimi sculpture she purchased comes to life.

Release Date2002-11-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count2

Nana

While on Night Patrol, Nana (Mitjili Napanangka Gibson) and another old Aunty (Noreen Robertson Nampijinpa) stop some grog runners from entering the community and decide to teach them a lesson.

Release Date2007-05-05

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count4

Radiance

After the death of their mother, three estranged sisters return to their childhood home.

Release Date1998-08-10

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Vote Count7

Between Two Lines

When two First World War enemy soldiers become stranded in no man’s land, an unlikely bond is formed. Will they still be able to pull the trigger if the time comes?

Release Date2019-06-09

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Nulla Nulla

Fresh out of the academy, White Cop experiences his first taste of Aboriginal community life, as Black Cop puts him to the test.

Release Date2015-02-10

DepartmentCrew

JobThanks

Vote Count5

In the Air

Jealousy is a curse. She's her own worse enemy, jealous, impulsive, sabotages herself, awake or asleep, in snagging her man, who is a reluctant player when it comes to messing with his little piece of paradise.

Release Date2012-05-01

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Ngangkari

With their ancient knowledge, traditional healers play a vital role in Aboriginal communities. This film follows three Ngangkari as they go about their impressive work, and shows how traditional methods can complement Western medical practices.

Release Date2001-02-12

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Wirriya: Small Boy

This moving documentary is a record of a few hours in the life of a small 7 year old boy, Ricco, from Hidden Valley, one of the many town camps on the outskirts of Alice Springs. He has lived in the camp for most of his life, and is looked after by his three older sisters and his foster mother, Nanna Maudie.

Release Date2004-05-01

DepartmentCamera

JobAdditional Camera

The Way of the Ngangkari

Release Date2015-05-04

DepartmentArt

JobArt Direction

The Old Man and the Inland Sea

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.

Release Date2005-05-01

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

The Oysterman

A young Aboriginal oyster farmer meets an aerial artist when the circus comes to town and must decide whether he will follow in his family footsteps or follow his love.

Release Date2012-05-09

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Cold Turkey

Two brothers and their journey into a long night of desperate living in Alice Springs.

Release Date2003-03-03

DepartmentLighting

JobAdditional Lighting Technician

Black Chook

They were Australia’s bad days. Men killed other men and laughed. All that was left for the children of the dead was to remember. If they had the strength.

Release Date2015-08-01

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Tnorala - Baby Falling

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.

Release Date2007-05-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Plains Empty

A woman living in a deserted mining camp might not be the only person hiding out there.

Release Date2005-05-01

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Audacious

Release Date1995-05-01

DepartmentCamera

JobCamera Operator

My Mother India

Patricia Uberoi, an Australian woman, married an Indian professor in the 60s and moved to his home in New Delhi. They raised three children there, but the riots and the anti-Sikh feelings led to her encouraging her children to move to Australia. A documentary about a multicultural family becomes a commentary on the events surrounding the anti-Sikh riots of 1984.

Release Date2002-08-15

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Karlu Karlu: Devil's Marbles

We meet Warumungu elder Leslie Foster, senior Traditional Owner of country around this famous phenomenon south of Tennant Creek in Central Australia. Leslie shares the dreaming stories of the Marbles' creation, speaks of his 28-year struggle to regain rights over this land, and celebrates recent transfer of title over the Devils Marbles to Traditional Owners for share...

Release Date2010-05-03

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

My Brother Vinnie

Release Date2006-05-13

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Bit of Black Business

13 short films showcasing indigenous filmmakers from around Australia.

Release Date2008-05-01

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Willaberta Jack

Release Date2007-05-01

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Rosalie's Journey

In 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.

Release Date2003-01-01

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

My Bed Your Bed

This short romantic drama from Erica Glynn uses the power of silence to communicate the tension between two characters who have been promised to each other.

Release Date1998-10-10

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Mparntwe Sacred Sites

This documentary focuses on the sacred sites in and around Mparntwe (Alice Springs) in central Australia, and the struggle of the Arrernte people to identify, document and preserve these sites in the face of rapid urban expansion and property development.

Release Date2004-05-01

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Buried Country

Buried Country was a cross-media juggernaut – book, film, CD – that first came out in 2000. The book was published by Pluto Press, beautifully designed by Wendy Farley; the documentary was produced through Film Australia/SBS TV, and directed by Andy Nehl, shot by Warwick Thornton and narrated by Kev Carmody

Release Date2000-06-12

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Here I Am

'Here I Am' is driven by three generations of Aboriginal women - Karen Lee Burden, her mother Lois and her daughter Rosie. When Karen is released from prison, through a series of chance encounters the women learn that freedom is hard to find when hearts are still broken.

Release Date2011-06-02

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Vote Count6

Stranded

Release Date2011-05-03

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Beyond Sorry

54 years after being stolen from her traditional Aboriginal family under Australian Government policy, Zita Wallace is coming home. Guided by her childhood friend Aggie, a traditional woman who was hidden from authorities when Zita was taken, the two women embark on an intimate and confronting journey into the heart of reconciliation.

Release Date2005-02-26

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Vote Count1

5 Seasons

In these fast and modern times, the Numurindi people are still guided by the seasons and stories of the Dreamtime. This observational documentary focuses on Moses Numamurdirdi and his family's fight to hold onto their culture and ways in an ever-changing world.

Release Date2005-06-07

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Flat

15-year-old Marnie, Handycam at her side, captures a day in the life of her housing project.

Release Date2002-01-01

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Willigan's Fitzroy

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.

Release Date2000-05-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Wolfram: A Sequel to Sweet Country

Four years after the events of “Sweet Country” and revolving around David Tranter’s Alyawarra family history, three irrepressible kids who escape from their cruel white masters and embark on a journey across the sweet country of central Australia to try and find a safe home.

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Burning Daylight

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...

Release Date2007-05-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

The Lore of Love

Jessie Bartlett a shy 18 year old girl, learns the lores of love from her mischievous Pintubi grandmothers, Mijili, Nancy and Kumanjayi. A film about relationships and culture set in the desert.

Release Date2005-05-03

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Satellite Dreaming

Release Date1991-05-01

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Ancient Eye

Release Date2017-05-03

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Keao

Keao follows a young woman's journey of self-actualization through the use of ancient cultural practices.

Release Date2008-05-02

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Dark Science

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.

Release Date2008-05-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

From Sand to Celluloid: Payback

Paddy finds there are two separate laws, the white and the black.

Release Date1996-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Meth Kelly

Meth 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.

Release Date2020-06-16

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Jabiru 0886: Trespass

A David and Goliath story of a small Aboriginal community in Australia and their successful struggle to stop uranium mining on their land.

Release Date2002-05-01

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Stone Forever

Over 30,000 bikers turned up in 1998 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Stone and recreate the funeral scene.

Release Date1999-12-11

DepartmentCamera

JobAdditional Camera

Vote Count4

A Classroom in Theresienstadt

Release Date1998-05-01

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Marluku Wirlinyi: The Kangaroo Hunters

MARLUKU WIRLINYI is a tale of kangaroo hunting that weaves its way through Dreamtime, to the present and back again. A group of old Warlpiri men transport us back to a time of rarely heard history and we follow their journey into the present. Songs, stories and dance relate the importances of the past to the present.

Release Date1998-05-01

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Promise

An old woman, overseeing her granddaughter making some damper, is asked how she came to be betrothed or “promised” at a young age.

Release Date1998-01-01

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography