Ivan Sen Ivan Sen i(A91015 works by)
Born: Established: 1972 ;
Gender: Male
Heritage: Aboriginal ; Aboriginal Kamilaroi
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BiographyHistory

Screenwriter, director, cinematographer.

An Indigenous Australian filmmaker who grew up in the New South Wales country towns of Tamworth and Inverell, Ivan Sen is a descendant of the Gamilaroi and Bigambal language groups of northwest New South Wales and southern Queensland. He also is of Hungarian, German and Croatian descent. In the early 1990s he studied photography at the Queensland College of Art and worked as a camera operator and sound recordist. He also graduated from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School in 1997 with a BA in directing.

Throughout the late 1990s Sen worked on numerous short films, before making his feature film debut Beneath Clouds in 2002. For this project he drew on his own background as the child of an Aboriginal mother and an absent white father. Both written and directed by Sen, Beneath Clouds drew much critical acclaim, and was subsequently nominated for numerous national and international awards. Among these were wins for Best Directing (2002 AFI Awards and 2002 IF Awards).

Since 2002 Sen has worked predominantly on documentaries. In 2005 his film Yellow Fella was chosen to screen at the Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival, the first Indigenous Australian documentary to do so.

Most Referenced Works

Notes

Personal Awards

2011 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards Australian Film Institute Awards Byron Kennedy Award for his unique artistic vision and for showing us, by his resourceful multidisciplinary filmmaking, that telling stories on screen is in reach of all who have something consequential to say.

Awards for Works

form y separately published work icon Limbo ( dir. Ivan Sen ) Australia : Bunya Productions Windalong Films , 2023 25070174 2023 single work film/TV detective

Detective Travis Hurley 'arrives in a small Australian outback town to investigate a 20-year-old unsolved murder of a local Aboriginal girl. Forming bonds with the victim’s fractured family, Travis unravels a series of hard truths, highlighting the complexities of loss and injustice experienced by First Nations Australians.'

Source: Screen Australia.

2023 nominated AFCA Film Awards Best Screenplay
2023 nominated AFCA Film Awards Best Director
2023 nominated AFCA Film Awards Best Film
2023 winner Film Critics Circle of Australia Best Director
2023 nominated Film Critics Circle of Australia Best Screenplay - Original or Adapted
2023 winner Film Critics Circle of Australia Best Film
2024 winner Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards Best Indie Film
form y separately published work icon Goldstone ( dir. Ivan Sen ) Australia : Dark Matter Productions , 2016 8474304 2016 single work film/TV

'Indigenous Detective Jay Swan arrives in a frontier mining town on a missing persons enquiry.

'What seems like a simple “light duties” investigation soon opens into a web of crime and corruption implicating the local Mayor, Mining Boss and Aboriginal Land Council.

'Jay must overcome personal differences with the young local policeman while he pulls his life together to dig deeper into the conspiracy. They are led into a world of people trafficking and organised crime at the heart of the local mining industry, where the value of a life is pitted against big money and deep-rooted corruption.' (Production summary)

2017 winner AFCA Film Awards Best Director
2017 nominated AFCA Film Awards Best Screenplay
2017 nominated AFCA Film Awards Best Film
2016 winner Film Critics Circle of Australia Best Original Screenplay
2016 winner Film Critics Circle of Australia Best Director
2016 winner Film Critics Circle of Australia Best Film
2016 nominated Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards Best Original Screenplay
2016 nominated Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards Best Film
form y separately published work icon Mystery Road Moree Girls ( dir. Ivan Sen ) Australia : Mystery Road Films , 2013 Z1870365 2013 single work film/TV

Jay Swan, a detective, returns home to an outback town to solve the murder of a teenage Indigenous girl, whose body is found near a trucking route out of town.

2014 winner AFCA Film Awards Best Screenplay
2014 winner AFCA Film Awards Best Director
2014 winner AFCA Film Awards Best Film
2014 nominated Film Critics Circle of Australia Best Original Screenplay
2014 nominated Film Critics Circle of Australia Best Film
2013 Nominated Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards Best Original Screenplay Feature Film
2013 nominated Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards Best Film Feature Film
2013 finalist Deadly Sounds Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music, Sport, Entertainment and Community Awards Film of the Year
Last amended 3 Mar 2014 11:31:57
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