Cirrus@Austlit

Screenwriter, producer, director.

A former journalist and Sydney Morning Herald newspaper police reporter, John Dingwall utilised his experiences by writing episodes for Crawford Production's 'cop shows' during his early years as a television scriptwriter. Among the series that he was associated with during the late 1960s and early 1970s were Homicide, Matlock Police and Division Four. His 'Johnny Reb' teleplay for an episode of Homicide won a 1970 Australian Writers' Guild award. After establishing his reputation with police dramas, Dingwall eventually branched out into writing straight drama and comedy.

In 1974 Dingwall conceived and wrote the feature film Sunday Too Far Away! (q.v., 1975). The screenplay, based on his brother-in-law's experiences as a sheep shearer, is credited by many critics as having opened the country's films to the world. It was, for example, the first Australian film to compete in the Director's Fortnight in Cannes and one of the first to receive international distribution. Two years after Sunday Too Far Away!, Dingwall co-created and co-wrote the award-winning television series Pig in a Poke (1977). His success in these ventures led him to consider becoming an independent producer and, in the early 1980s, he formed his own film production company, JD Productions.

The company's first feature film production was Buddies in 1983. Faced with distribution difficulties, Dingwall took a print and posters of the film on the road, touring it successfully around rural cinemas in Queensland. In 1988 he mortgaged his house and raised funds to make the psychodrama, Phobia (q.v.), which he wrote and directed. Well received at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival, it was also nominated in each and every category as one of two final nominations for the 1991 Australian Critics Society Awards. The film ultimately won Best Actor and Best Screenplay awards. His final film, The Custodian (q.v.), was released in 1993.

During his distinguished career, John Dingwall's work won him fourteen Australia film awards including AFI, Awgie, Logie and Penguin awards. He died in Murwillumbah of cancer in 2004 and is survived by five children and his partner Dimitra Meleti.