Sue Maslin AO is an Australian screen producer. She is best known for her feature films Road to Nhill (1997) Japanese Story (2003) and The Dressmaker (2015).

Sue Maslin
NationalityAustralian
Other namesSusan Mary Maslin
Occupation(s)Film and documentary producer
Years active1988–present
Notable credit(s)Road to Nhill (1997) Japanese Story (2003) and The Dressmaker (2015)

Early life edit

Maslin was raised in rural New South Wales, moving to Canberra to attend university. Initially graduating with a Bachelor of Science from Australian National University, Maslin then went on to graduate from Canberra College of Advanced Education with a Bachelor of Media Studies. It was here that Maslin met Daryl Dellora, her long-term business partner and co-founder of Film Art Media and Film Art Doco.[citation needed]

Politicised on campus by the birth of second-generation feminism in Australia, Maslin started what would become a lifelong fight for women's rights. Maslin was among the Women Against Rape demonstrators arrested and charged in Canberra for controversially using the platform of ANZAC Day to protest rape being used as a weapon in war.[citation needed] It was Maslin's commitment to gender equity and celebrating women in history that was the genesis of her first theatrical documentary project, Thanks Girls and Goodbye (1988).[1]

Career edit

Maslin is a graduate from the Australian National University and the Canberra CAE where she studied radio, photography, film and television.

Maslin wrote, directed and produced her first feature documentary Thanks Girls and Goodbye (1988),[1] which wrote the missing chapter in history about the Australian Land Army – the women who worked on farms during the Second World War and supported the war effort through food production. She then went on to produce feature documentary Mr Neal Is Entitled to Be an Agitator (1991)[2][unreliable source?] alongside director Daryl Dellora which was nominated for Best Documentary at the Australian Film Institute Award in 1992. Maslin went on to produce series Conspiracy (1994) and her first feature drama Road to Nhill (1997) [3][unreliable source?] with director Sue Brooks. Road to Nhill won the Golden Alexander Award (Sue Brooks) at Thessaloniki Film Festival and the Holden Award for the Best Script (Alison Tilson ) at the Torino International Festival of Young Cinema in 1997.

In 1998 Maslin produced feature documentary The Highest Court,[4][unreliable source?] which shows first hand the characters and drama of the High Court of Australia, the pinnacle of legal and constitutional processes in Australia. Maslin then went on to tell the story of Jørn Utzon, acclaimed architect of the Sydney Opera House in The Edge of Possible (1998).[5]

Maslin's teamed up again with director Sue Brooks and writer Alison Tilson on Japanese Story (2003).[6][unreliable source?] Featuring Toni Collette and Gotaro Tsunashima, Japanese Story went on to win multiple awards and nominations including Best Film at the Australian Film Institute Awards, Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards and IF Awards in 2003.[6] Following Japanese Story, Maslin produced and executive produced a number of Australian documentaries including Irresistible (executive producer), Hunt Angels (producer) [7] – winner of the 2006 AFI Award for Best Feature Documentary Film, Celebrity: Dominick Dunne (producer),[8][unreliable source?] Michael Kirby: Don't Forget the Justice Bit (producer),[9] Breaking the News (executive producer) and Ringbalin: Breaking the Drought (executive producer).

Maslin produced The Dressmaker alongside director Jocelyn Moorhouse which was released in 2015. Starring Kate Winslet, Judy Davis, Liam Hemsworth and Hugo Weaving, the film was released following the very successful book of the same title written by Rosalie Ham. The film was one of the most successful in Australian history grossing $20 million at the Box Office [10] and garnered the highest number of nominations at the 2015 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts(AACTA) Awards, winning five including the People's Choice Award for Favourite Australian Film.[11][unreliable source?]

Maslin produced and/or executive produced the feature documentary Harry Seidler: Modernist (2017) [12][unreliable source?] comedy series Other People's Problems (2017),[13][unreliable source?] documentary Paper Trails (2017), feature documentary Jill Bilcock: Dancing The Invisible (2017), The Show Must Go On (2019) and Brazen Hussies (2020).

Maslin holds the position of Adjunct Professor at the RMIT School of Media and Communications as well as Adjunct Fellow at Swinburne University School of Film and Television. She is a founding course leader for Compton School developing the Creative Leadership program.[citation needed]

Advocacy edit

In 1988 Maslin founded Women in Film and Television (Victoria), seeking to address gender bias in the film industry. From 2010 Maslin has been president[when?] of the Natalie Miller Fellowship, an organisation supporting the professional leadership of women in all sectors of the Australian screen industry.

She has served on numerous boards, including the Australian Film Institute, Film Victoria, Adelaide Film Festival and the Documentary Australia Foundation.[citation needed]

Awards and honours edit

Maslin was the inaugural recipient of the Jill Robb Award for Outstanding leadership, achievement and service to the Victorian screen industry in 2012.[citation needed]

She was appointed Charles Herschell Fellowship, Swinburne University 2018 and the Distinguished Alumni Award for Canberra University in 2019.[14]

In 2018 Maslin was inducted onto the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2018.[citation needed]

In 2019 she was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for "distinguished service to the Australian film industry as a producer, and through roles with professional bodies".[15]

In 2021, Maslin won the Chauvel Award, which acknowledges significant contribution to the Australian screen industry.[16]

Selected filmography edit

Maslin's documentary films include Mr Neal is Entitled to be an Agitator (1991), The Edge of the Possible (1998),[5] Hunt Angels (2006),[7] Michael Kirby – Don't Forget The Justice Bit (2010) [9] and The Show Must Go On (2019).[17] She is also a distributor of independent documentary films through her company Film Art Media established in 2008 with Daryl Dellora.

Year Film Genre Role
1988 Thanks Girls and Goodbye documentary producer
1991 Mr Neal is Entitled to be an Agitator documentary producer
1993 Black River opera film co-producer
1993 Koories and Cops documentary producer
1994 Conspiracy documentary producer
1997 Road to Nhill feature film producer
1998 The Highest Court documentary producer
1998 The Edge of the Possible documentary producer
2000 A Mirror to the People documentary producer
2003 Japanese Story feature film producer
2005 The Life, Times and Travels of the Extraordinary Vice-Admiral, William Bligh documentary producer
2005 Irresistible feature film executive producer
2006 Hunt Angels documentary producer
2008 Celebrity: Dominick Dunne documentary executive producer
2010 Re-enchantment documentary producer
2010 Michael Kirby – Don't Forget The Justice Bit documentary producer
2011 Coral Rekindling Venus transmedia work producer
2013 Ringbalin documentary executive producer
2013 Encounters documentary executive producer
2015 The Dressmaker feature film producer
2015 Harry Seidler: Modernist documentary producer
2016 Behind The Seams: The Making of The Dressmaker documentary director
2017 Paper Trails documentary executive producer
2017 Jill Bilcock – Dancing The Invisible documentary executive producer
2017 Jill Bilcock – The Art of Editing documentary executive producer
2019 The Show Must Go On documentary producer
2020 Ablaze documentary executive producer
2020 Why Did she Have To Tell The World? documentary executive producer
2020 Brazen Hussies documentary executive producer

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Thanks Girls and Goodbye (1988)". IMDb.
  2. ^ "Mr Neal Is Entitled to Be an Agitator (1991)". IMDb.
  3. ^ "Road to Nhill (1997)". IMDb.
  4. ^ "The Highest Court (TV Movie 1998)". IMDb.
  5. ^ a b "The Edge of the Possible (1998)". IMDb.
  6. ^ a b "Japanese Story (2003)". IMDb.
  7. ^ a b "Hunt Angels (2006)". IMDb.
  8. ^ "Celebrity: Dominick Dunne (2008)". IMDb.
  9. ^ a b "Michael Kirby: Don't Forget the Justice Bit (2010)". IMDb.
  10. ^ "The Dressmaker". Box Office Mojo.
  11. ^ "The Dressmaker (2015)". IMDb.
  12. ^ "Harry Seidler: Modernist". IMDb.
  13. ^ "Other People's Problems (TV Series 2017)". IMDb.
  14. ^ "2019 Distinguished Alumni Award Winners & Finalists – University of Canberra". www.canberra.edu.au. 5 September 2022.
  15. ^ "Ms Susan Mary Maslin". It's an Honour. 26 January 2019. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  16. ^ "The Chauvel Award". Gold Coast Film Festival. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
  17. ^ "The Show Must Go On (2019)". IMDb.

External links edit