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60-674: Gillian May Armstrong (born 18 December 1950) is an Australian feature film and documentary director , best known for My Brilliant Career , Little Women , The Last Days of Chez Nous , and Mrs. Soffel . She is a Member of the Order of Australia . She has won multiple awards including an AFI Best Director Award, and has been nominated for numerous other awards including a Palme D'Or and two Golden Bear Awards. She has received multiple Honorary Doctorates including an Honorary Doctor of Letter Degree from University of Sydney, and an Honorary Doctorate from Swinburne University of Technology. Armstrong

120-473: A film school to get a bachelor's degree studying film or cinema. Film students generally study the basic skills used in making a film. This includes, for example, preparation, shot lists and storyboards, blocking, communicating with professional actors, communicating with the crew, and reading scripts. Some film schools are equipped with sound stages and post-production facilities. Besides basic technical and logistical skills, students also receive education on

180-459: A Day , My Brilliant Career , High Tide , and Oscar and Lucinda continue to reflect the theme. Furthermore, many people have called her a creator of "strong females" but she insists that she is simply making films about complex characters and the choices that they make. Armstrong has a distinctive style in her work that resists easy categorisation. Most of her films cannot simply be stated as being either "women's films" or Australian ones which are

240-455: A big-budget feature, which became Mrs. Soffel (1984) starring Mel Gibson and Diane Keaton . This film tells the true story of an affair between a prisoner and a prison warden's wife, and was relatively well received by audiences and critics. On returning to Australia, Armstrong continued to make both documentaries and feature films. She earned great recognition for High Tide (1987) and The Last Days of Chez Nous (1992), for which she

300-691: A biography of Joseph Furphy (1944) "in painful collaboration with Kate Baker ". Previously, in 1939, she and Baker had won the Prior Memorial prize for an essay on Furphy. Dever writes that the letters between Dymphna Cusack and Miles Franklin that are published in Yarn Spinners "provide a see-sawing commentary on the delicate art of literary collaboration". In her will she made a bequest for her estate to establish an annual literary award known as The Miles Franklin Award . The first winner

360-505: A commitment to solid character development and acting. According to film scholar Gwendolyn Audrey Foster , Armstrong has a "strong feminist bent" and a "mordant sense of humor". Armstrong is married to John Pleffer, and they have two daughters. Film director The film director gives direction to the cast and crew and creates an overall vision through which a film eventually becomes realized or noticed. Directors need to be able to mediate differences in creative visions and stay within

420-410: A film director at the age of 27. During the time of the development of Australian Cinema Armstrong recalls in a Washington Post interview that tremendous tax breaks led to a frightful overproduction. Everybody was interested in doing deals and even stockbrokers were becoming directors. However, very few of them had the commitment to cinema that Armstrong and others had, and the films would be shown for

480-485: A flat fee for the project, as a weekly salary, or as a daily rate. A handful of top Hollywood directors made from $ 133.3 million to $ 257.95 million in 2011, such as James Cameron and Steven Spielberg , but the average United States film directors and producers made $ 89,840 in 2018. A new Hollywood director typically gets paid around $ 400,000 for directing their first studio film. The average annual salary in England

540-558: A nomination for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival . Armstrong has voiced her desire to reach a wide audience in her interviews, one that includes both men and women of all nationalities. However, her work continually addresses sexual politics and family tensions. Films focused on the escape and struggle with traditional sex roles and its related drawbacks and progressions such as One hundred

600-558: A punk shag haircut. Following this success, Armstrong was commissioned by the South Australian Film Corporation to make a documentary exploring the lives of young teenage girls living in Adelaide, South Australia. This became Smokes and Lollies (1976) , her first paid job as director. Armstrong's own interest in the girls led her to revisit them at ages 18, 26, 33 and 48, resulting in four more films in

660-551: A recent trend of more attention to women directors in India, brought on partly by Amazon and Netflix moving into the industry. Of the movies produced in Nollywood , women direct only 2%. There are many different awards for film directing, run by various academies , critics associations , film festivals , and guilds . The Academy Award for Best Director and Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director are considered among

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720-554: A row with everyone & insisted on being head. I just let 'em muddle along and take no notice as I've had a year's training in London of English ways. Will think my own thoughts and write a book if the plot comes into my head. From 1919 to 1926 Franklin worked as Secretary with the National Housing and Town Planning Association in London. She organised a women's international housing convention in 1924. Her life in England in

780-767: A sanatorium for a period in 1912 In 1915, she travelled to England and worked as a cook and earned some money from journalism. In March 1917 Franklin volunteered for war work in the Ostrovo Unit of the Scottish Women's Hospitals during the Serbian campaigns of 1917–18. She served as a cook and later matron's orderly in a 200-bed tent hospital attached to the Serbian army near Lake Ostrovo in Macedonian Greece from July 1917 to February 1918. Was made staff cook against my will. ... Then Miss Brown made

840-584: A war on Australian soil at this time. While Miles Franklin had many suitors, she never married. She died on 19 September 1954, aged 74 and her ashes were scattered in Jounama Creek, Talbingo close to where she was born. Miles Franklin engaged in a number of literary collaborations throughout her life. In addition to co-editing the journal Life and Labor with Alice Henry in the US, she also wrote Pioneers on Parade in collaboration with Dymphna Cusack and

900-537: A week or two, or not released at all. After Armstrong's second film My Brilliant Career , she had offers from Hollywood but quickly turned them all away, preferring to stay in Australia to make a deliberately small film called Starstruck . After the release of Starstruck , Armstrong went around giving interviews dressed in a large fuzzy blue sweater dress decorated with coloured beads, a black-and-white polka dot blouse, black tights and blue suede shoes all topped by

960-604: A woman for 46 years. Armstrong received six awards at the 1979 Australian Film Awards (previously the Australian Film Institute Awards, or AFI 's) including Best Director. The film also brought considerable attention to its two main stars, Judy Davis and Sam Neill who were relatively unknown at the time. Following the success of My Brilliant Career , which was nominated for an Academy Award in Best Costume Design, Armstrong directed

1020-520: A yearly salary from ¥4 million to ¥10 million, and the Directors Guild of Japan requires a minimum payment of ¥3.5 million. Korean directors make 300 million to 500 million won for a film, and beginning directors start out making around 50 million won. A Korean director who breaks into the Chinese market might make 1 billion won for a single film. According to a 2018 report from UNESCO ,

1080-740: Is a film criticism concept that holds that a film director's film reflects the director's personal creative vision, as if they were the primary "auteur" (the French word for "author"). In spite of—and sometimes even because of—the production of the film as part of an industrial process, the auteur's creative voice is distinct enough to shine through studio interference and the collective process. Some film directors started as screenwriters , film editors , producers , actors , or film critics , as well as directing for similar media like television and commercials. Several American cinematographers have become directors, including Barry Sonnenfeld , originally

1140-418: Is to envisage a way to translate a screenplay into a fully formed film, and then to realize this vision. To do this, they oversee the artistic and technical elements of film production. This entails organizing the film crew in such a way to achieve their vision of the film and communicating with the actors. This requires skills of group leadership, as well as the ability to maintain a singular focus even in

1200-738: Is £50,440, in Canada is $ 62,408, and in Western Australia it can range from $ 75,230 to $ 97,119. In France, the average salary is €4000 per month, paid per project. Luc Besson was the highest paid French director in 2017, making €4.44 million for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets . That same year, the top ten French directors' salaries in total represented 42% of the total directors' salaries in France. Film directors in Japan average

1260-578: The Australian Film and Television School . She started her studies before the Australian film industry had developed. She recalls that when new films were released, the actors sounded strange; for the first time their accents were Australian rather than American. Attending Swinburne Technical College , she saw a range of artistic films from the commercial cinema and television she was used to. After graduating from art school in 1968, Armstrong

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1320-769: The National Women's Trade Union League in Chicago, and co-edited the league's magazine, Life and Labor . Her years in the US are reflected in On Dearborn Street (not published until 1981), a love story that uses American slang in a manner not dissimilar to the early work of Dashiell Hammett . Also while in America she wrote Some Everyday Folk and Dawn (1909), the story of a small-town Australian family, which uses purple prose for deliberate comic effect. She suffered regular bouts of ill health and entered

1380-630: The Order of the British Empire . In this period of her life Franklin was a constant attendee and speaker at various cultural and literary events. Her message was centred on free speech and the championing of Australian literature. Franklin was not a member of any political party, although her diaries reveal an interest in socialism and ASIO did have a file on Franklin during the Cold War. Franklin's literary friend P.R. ('Inky') Stephenson launched

1440-527: The S. H. Prior Memorial Prize in 1939 together with Kate Baker for their collaborative work 'Who Was Joseph Furphy?'. Throughout her life, Franklin actively supported Australian literature . She joined the Fellowship of Australian Writers in 1933 and the Sydney PEN Club in 1935. She encouraged young writers such as Jean Devanny , Sumner Locke Elliott and Ric Throssell and she supported

1500-432: The adaptation of Little Women , starring Winona Ryder , Susan Sarandon , Gabriel Byrne , Christian Bale , Claire Danes and Kirsten Dunst . This adaptation of Louisa May Alcott 's novel was one of the most popular films of the year, and emphasises Armstrong's focus on portraying the intimate lives of strong female characters and their relationships with one another. She followed this success three years later with

1560-660: The budget . There are many pathways to becoming a film director. Some film directors started as screenwriters , cinematographers , producers , film editors or actors. Other film directors have attended film school. Directors use different approaches. Some outline a general plotline and let the actors improvise dialogue, while others control every aspect and demand that the actors and crew follow instructions precisely. Some directors also write their own screenplays or collaborate on screenplays with long-standing writing partners. Other directors edit or appear in their films or compose music score for their films. A film director's task

1620-514: The 1920s gave rise to Bring the Monkey (1933), a satire on the English country house mystery novel. The book reveals Franklin's views on nationality and class. The book was a literary and commercial failure. Franklin resettled in Australia in 1932 after the death of her father in 1931. During that decade she wrote several historical novels of the Australian bush, most of which were published under

1680-510: The Australian rock-musical Starstruck which proved her ability to tackle more contemporary and experimental subject matter and styles. She has directed a number of rock music videos in the early 1980s, including 1984's " Bop Girl " by Pat Wilson , which featured Nicole Kidman . Since then, Armstrong has specialised in period drama. She was the first foreign woman to be approached by the American film company MGM to finance her direction of

1740-1123: The Berlin/Brandenburg TV station RBB (Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting) and ARTE . In recent decades American directors have primarily been coming out of USC , UCLA , AFI , Columbia University , and NYU , each of which is known for cultivating a certain style of filmmaking. Notable film schools outside of the United States include Beijing Film Academy , Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica in Mexico City, Dongseo University in South Korea, FAMU in Prague, Film and Television Institute of India , HFF Munich , La Fémis in Paris, Tel Aviv University , and Vancouver Film School . Film directors usually are self-employed and hired per project based on recommendations and industry reputation. Compensation might be arranged as

1800-528: The Coen brothers' Director of Photography; Wally Pfister , cinematographer on Christopher Nolan 's three Batman films made his directorial debut with Transcendence (2014). Despite the misnomer, assistant director has become a completely separate career path and is not typically a position for aspiring directors, but there are exceptions in some countries such as India where assistant directors are indeed directors-in-training. Many film directors have attended

1860-422: The director ensures that all individuals involved in the film production are working towards an identical vision for the completed film. The set of varying challenges they have to tackle has been described as "a multi-dimensional jigsaw puzzle with egos and weather thrown in for good measure". It adds to the pressure that the success of a film can influence when and how they will work again, if at all. Generally,

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1920-435: The director works with the editor to edit the material into the director's cut . Well-established directors have the " final cut privilege ", meaning that they have the final say on which edit of the film is released. For other directors, the studio can order further edits without the director's permission. The director is one of the few positions that requires intimate involvement during every stage of film production . Thus,

1980-430: The eastern suburb of Mitcham . She was a technical theatre student at Swinburne Technical College , where she worked as a waitress to pay her tuition. Originally, she attended school to become a theatrical set designer but happened to take a film course and became enamored of the great directors. She decided to enter the film industry. She won a scholarship to join the first 12 students at the country's first film school,

2040-434: The feature films Charlotte Gray (2001), starring Cate Blanchett, and Death Defying Acts (2008), starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Guy Pearce . Based on the novel by Sebastian Faulks , Charlotte Gray is another of Armstrong's films that centres around a strong female protagonist. Removed from Armstrong's usual subject matter, Death Defying Acts portrays a moment in the life of 1920s escape artist Harry Houdini in

2100-430: The film Oscar and Lucinda (1997), starring Ralph Fiennes and a relatively unknown Cate Blanchett . This film, based on the novel by Australian writer Peter Carey , tells the story of a mismatched love affair in 19th-century Australia. It received mixed reviews both locally and internationally, despite its high production value and strong performances by the film main actors. In the 2000s, Armstrong went on to direct

2160-478: The film industry throughout the world has a disproportionately higher number of male directors compared to female directors, and they provide as an example the fact that only 20% of films in Europe are directed by women. 44% of graduates from a sample of European films schools are women, and yet women are only 24% of working film directors in Europe. However only a fraction of film school graduates aspire to direct with

2220-545: The local Goulburn newspaper. Her best known novel, My Brilliant Career , tells the story of an irrepressible teenage girl, Sybylla Melvyn, growing to womanhood in rural New South Wales. It was published in 1901 with the support of Australian writer, Henry Lawson . After its publication, Franklin tried a career in nursing, and then as a housemaid in Sydney and Melbourne. Whilst doing this she contributed pieces to The Daily Telegraph and The Sydney Morning Herald under

2280-472: The majority entering the industry in other roles. In Hollywood, women make up only 12.6 percent of film directors, as reported by a UCLA study of the 200 top theatrical films of 2017, but that number is a significant increase from 6.9% in 2016. As of 2014, there were only 20 women in the Directors Guild of Japan out of the 550 total members. Indian film directors are also greatly underrepresented by women, even compared to other countries, but there has been

2340-688: The most prestigious awards for directing, and there is even an award for worst directing given out during the Golden Raspberry Awards . Miles Franklin Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin (14 October 1879 – 19 September 1954), known as Miles Franklin , was an Australian writer and feminist who is best known for her novel My Brilliant Career , published by Blackwoods of Edinburgh in 1901. While she wrote throughout her life, her other major literary success, All That Swagger ,

2400-548: The nature of professional relationships that occur during film production. A full degree course can be designed for up to five years of studying. Future directors usually complete short films during their enrollment. The National Film School of Denmark has the student's final projects presented on national TV. Some film schools retain the rights for their students' works. Many directors successfully prepared for making feature films by working in television. The German Film and Television Academy Berlin consequently cooperates with

2460-645: The new literary journals, Meanjin and Southerly . Miles entertained literary figures at her home in Carlton, NSW. An autograph book known as Miles Franklin's Waratah Book held by the State Library of NSW was used for autographs and inscriptions. Guests were encouraged to drink tea from the Waratah Cup and to write in the Waratah Book. In 1937, Franklin declined appointment as an Officer of

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2520-415: The position of film director is widely considered to be a highly stressful and demanding one. It has been said that "20-hour days are not unusual". Some directors also take on additional roles, such as producing, writing or editing. Under European Union law, the film director is considered the "author" or one of the authors of a film, largely as a result of the influence of auteur theory . Auteur theory

2580-441: The pro-isolationist, anti-war Australia First Movement in late 1941, to which Franklin was vehemently opposed, as evidenced by her diary entries and correspondence at the time - "Reds or pinks or 'rightists' all showed their ignorance" she wrote after attending a AFM meeting, and of Stephenson "I could not have anything to do with his politics". Franklin was staunchly anti-war and, traumatized by her WWI experiences, very much feared

2640-497: The pseudonym "Brent of Bin Bin". New South Wales State Librarian, Dagmar Schmidmaier , said "Miles increasingly feared that nothing she wrote matched the success of My Brilliant Career and resorted to writing under different names, including the pseudonym Brent of Bin Bin, to protect herself from poor reviews." However, All That Swagger was published under her own name in 1936, winning the S. H. Prior Memorial Prize . Franklin also won

2700-506: The pseudonyms "An Old Bachelor" and "Vernacular." During this period she wrote My Career Goes Bung in which Sybylla encounters the Sydney literary set, but it was not released to the public until 1946. An overtly anti-war play, The Dead Must Not Return , was not published or performed but received a public reading in September 2009. In 1906, Franklin moved to the US and undertook secretarial work for Alice Henry , another Australian, at

2760-407: The restrictions of the film's budget and the demands of the producer and studio (such as the need to get a particular age rating ). Directors also play an important role in post-production . While the film is still in production, the director sends " dailies " to the film editor and explains their overall vision for the film, allowing the editor to assemble an editor's cut . In post-production,

2820-403: The sole superiors of the director are the producers and the studio that is financing the film, although sometimes the director can also be a producer of the same film. The role of a director differs from producers in that producers typically manage the logistics and business operations of the production, whereas the director is tasked with making creative decisions. The director must work within

2880-477: The stressful, fast-paced environment of a film set. Moreover, it is necessary to have an artistic eye to frame shots and to give precise feedback to cast and crew, thus, excellent communication skills are a must. Because the film director depends on the successful cooperation of many different creative individuals with possibly strongly contradicting artistic ideals and visions, they also need to possess conflict-resolution skills to mediate whenever necessary. Thus

2940-418: The style of a supernatural, romantic thriller. It received a modest earning at the box office, and was part of a special screening at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival Despite the success of these more commercial films, it was Armstrong's lesser-known documentary Unfolding Florence: The Many Lives of Florence Broadhurst (2006), which earned her the most critical recognition during this time, and

3000-412: The style of the popular " Up Series ". These are Fourteen's Good, Eighteen's Better (1980) , Bingo, Bridesmaids and Braces (1988), Not Fourteen Again (1996) , and her most recent film Love, Lust & Lies (2009) Armstrong's first feature-length film My Brilliant Career (1979), an adaptation of Miles Franklin 's novel of the same name, was the first Australian feature-length film to be directed by

3060-468: The two most generalised categories for women in her line of work. Armstrong's films are described as mixing and intermingling genres in ways that recreate them as something vastly different than what they have been considered. Nevertheless, the films that Armstrong creates can also be considered conventional films in their appeal to the audience. Her films possess sensitive and delicate cinematography, fluid editing, an evocative feel for setting and costume, and

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3120-679: Was Patrick White with Voss in 1957. The Canberra suburb of Franklin and the nearby primary school Miles Franklin Primary School are named in her honour. The school holds an annual writing competition in her memory. Additionally the Franklin Public School in Tumut , NSW is also named in her honour. During her lifetime Miles Franklin donated several items to the Mitchell Library . Manuscript material

3180-526: Was born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, on 18 December 1950. She went to a local high school, Vermont High School (now Vermont Secondary College ), and was the middle child of a local real estate agent father and a primary school teacher mother who stopped outside work to rear a family. Armstrong stated in The Australian that her parents were always very supportive of her hopes and dreams, which

3240-541: Was further recognised in 2013 with the creation of the Stella Prize , awarded annually for the best work of literature by an Australian woman. Franklin was born at Talbingo, New South Wales , and grew up in the Brindabella Valley on a property called Brindabella Station . She was the eldest child of Australian-born parents, John Maurice Franklin and Susannah Margaret Eleanor Franklin, née Lampe, who

3300-593: Was nominated for Best Director at the 1987 and 1992 Australian Film Institute Awards (AFIs). The Last Days of Chez Nous also earned her a nomination at the Berlin Film Festival . Despite this, both films were largely unrecognised internationally Armstrong discusses the making of High Tide in the 2003 Canadian documentary Complete Unknown co-directed by Griffin Ondaatje and Craig Proctor. In 1994, Armstrong achieved her greatest Hollywood success with

3360-409: Was not always true for women in the 1960s and 70s. Her father was a frustrated photographer who wasn't allowed to follow his dreams professionally, yet continued his practise as an amateur. Armstrong reminisces that she grew up in a dark room, learning all about photography. When she first decided to go to art school, Armstrong didn't have a very firm grasp on what she wanted to do. Armstrong grew up in

3420-498: Was not published until 1936. She was committed to the development of a uniquely Australian form of literature, and she actively pursued this goal by supporting writers, literary journals, and writers' organisations. She has had a long-lasting impact on Australian literary life through her endowment of a major annual prize for literature about "Australian Life in any of its phases", the Miles Franklin Award . Her impact

3480-899: Was presented over the period 1937–1942. The various drafts of "Pioneers on Parade" were presented in 1940. She bequeathed her printed book collection, correspondence and notes as well as the poems of Mary Fullerton . 47 of Miles Franklin's diaries are in the State Library of New South Wales , including one copy discovered in 2018. A revival of interest in Franklin occurred in the wake of the Australian New Wave film My Brilliant Career (1979), which won several international awards. In 2014, Google Doodle celebrated her 135th birthday. In her 2022 novel, Salonika Burning , The Australian writer Gail Jones fictionalises Miles Franklin (as 'Stella'), and her experiences in Macedonia, as

3540-532: Was set on pursuing a career in film. She began making short films of 2–10 minutes, and started work as assistant editor in a commercial film house, which lasted a year. Following a string of small jobs within the Australian film industry, she achieved her first directorial recognition through her short film The Singer and the Dancer which won an award at the Sydney Film Festival . Armstrong became

3600-530: Was the great-granddaughter of Edward Miles (or Moyle) who had arrived with the First Fleet in the Scarborough with a seven-year sentence for theft. Her family was a member of the squattocracy . She was educated at home until 1889 when she attended Thornford Public. During this period she was encouraged in her writing by her teacher, Mary Gillespie (1856–1938) and Tom Hebblewhite (1857–1923) editor of

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