SCOTT HICKS received international acclaim for the 1997 sensation "Shine," which earned seven Academy Award® nominations, including Best Film, with Hicks receiving nominations for direction and screenplay. The film was awarded Best Film by the U.S. National Board of Review and won nine Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards, including Best Film and Best Director. Eight BAFTA and five Golden Globe nominations also followed, in addition to nominations for Hicks from both the Directors' and the Writers' Guilds of America.
Hicks had already made his mark as a documentary filmmaker. In 1994, he received an Emmy Award for his direction of "Submarine: Sharks of Steel," a four-hour series which he also co-wrote. His earlier work "The Great Wall of Iron," an extensive portrait of the People's Liberation Army of China, won the prestigious Peabody Award for Best Documentary Series Broadcast in the U.S in 1989. The documentary "Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts," which he directed, produced and filmed celebrating the iconic composer's 70th year, won the AFI Award for Best Feature Length Documentary in 2009. It was also short- listed for Academy Award® nomination.
Hicks' first studio film, "Snow Falling on Cedars," featured a powerful ensemble cast including Ethan Hawke, Youki Kudoh, Max von Sydow, Sam Shepard, James Cromwell and Reeve Carney. Hicks co-wrote the screenplay with Ron Bass, adapted from the best-selling novel by David Guterson. He also directed "Hearts in Atlantis," starring Anthony Hopkins and Anton Yelchin, based on stories by Stephen King as well as "No Reservations," starring Catherine Zeta- Jones, Aaron Eckhart and Abigail Breslin.
Hicks has also enjoyed extensive success in American television commercials, one of which is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In addition he has held three exhibitions of his own still photography.
Born in Uganda and raised in Kenya, Hicks migrated with his family first to England and then Australia as a teenager, graduating with Honors from the Flinders University of South Australia in 1975. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1997.
Hicks was honored as South Australian of the Year in 1999 and nominated as Australian of the Year for South Australia in 2008, both high accolades from his homeland. He is also Patron of the Helpmann Academy Foundation and the Tutti Choir, and an Ambassador for the Sight For All Foundation.
© 2012 Warner Bros. Pictures
