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Ronin Films

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Sue Brooks

Sue Brooks wrote and directed Looking for Grace. Looking for Grace screened in Official Competition at the Venice Film Festival and was in the inaugural Platform Selection of the Toronto Film Festival in 2015. It was a finalist at the International Women's Film Festival in Paris, the Chicago Film Festivals. The lead in Looking for Grace, Odessa Young, won the Sirius Award from the Casting Guild of Australia and a special prize at the Adelaide Film Festival. Sue was nominated for an ADG award for best direction and won the ADG/DGA Finders award for special screenings in LA and New York.

Sue directed the feature film, Japanese Story that premiered in competition at the Cannes Film festival. It won 27 awards including 8 AFI awards in 2003 and a coveted FIPRESCI award. Local gross box office was over 4.5 million dollars and it sold to over 22 territories including Samuel Goldwyn Jnr.

Sue also directed the feature Road to Nhill, which had a loyal audience who responded to its apparent verisimilitude. It played in Australian cinemas for over nine months. Prizes include the Thessaloniki prize for best film and the Turin prize for best script.

Other works as director include episodes of the ABC series SeaChange and the Film Australia documentaries High Heels and Land of the Long Weekend.

Sue co-produced with Steve Thomas the feature length documentary, Hope, which tells the story of Amal Basry, one of the survivors of the SIEV X. Hope premiered at MIFF. It screened at the Harlem, Pennsylvania, Human Rights Festival Melbourne, Cairo and UNHCR Festival in Tokyo. Hope won Best Documentary at the ATOM awards and had a national theatrical release.

Sue has been a Director on the Board of the AFI and the ADG. She was also Chair of the Open Channel Board. Sue has recently been given a lifetime achievement award from the ADG for her commitment to Independent cinema.

Filmography

ROAD TO NHILL »

A delightful rural comedy: in a small isolated Australian town, a car carrying four members of the local bowling club runs off the road, trapping the women inside...

HOPE »

In 2001, 400 asylum seekers set out on a boat known as the Siev X. Only 7 made it to Australia. Amal Basry was one of them ...

BAXTER AND ME »

One woman’s life, with and without men, but always with dogs. Acclaimed and award-winning filmmaker Gillian Leahy turns her mind to the relationship between herself and her dog in this searching, funny, touching and thought-provoking documentary...