TIFF ‘09 | Rachel Ward: “Always looking, always hopeful and totally thrilled”

All three of my shorts won many of Australia’s top awards including Critics Choice for both “Martha’s” and “The Big House.” They all sold commercially and screened in international festivals and competitions, such as Sundance and the Clemont Ferrand.

“Beautiful Kate”...

In 2008, I adapted and directed, “Beautiful Kate,” a novel by American author, Newton Thornburg. This is a novel that I had secretly coveted for many years. When the North American option, lapsed, I grabbed it. Relocating the story to work in Australian and updating the time frames, was a complicated process but coming up with a new ending (very internal in the book) and interweaving the past and present time frames was my greatest learning curve and it took many drafts to get it right (if ever!). I knew I was getting some where though, when the script started to attract Australia’s most talented performers Bryan Brown and Ben Mendelssohn and when Rachel Griffith signed on, The Works, our International sales agent, came on board and the funding fell in place. The whole film from pre-production, through filming to post was my most creatively fulfilling experience ever. I loved every minute and felt after many years in the business on the other side of the camera, that I might finally have found my most natural place. My only regret is that took so long to find the courage and conviction that, as a woman, I could helm a production. The Australian industry is extremely supportive of its female practitioners.

Your Influences…

Not surprisingly all my greatest influences are female film-makers from Jane Campion to Karin Adler (“Under the Skin”) to Caroline Link (“Nowhere in Africa”) to Christine Jeffs (“Rain,” “Sunshine Cleaning”). The success of their films with what I perceive as a uniquely female sensibility inspired and convinced me that there is a place for us in a very male dominated market.

The Future…

Well since the percentage of female directors working in North America is about 2% I won’t be hedging my bets that a career as a filmmaker awaits me there. I have the development rights to a hilarious book by British writer Maggie Gee called My Cleaner which Geoffrey Atherden (“Mother and Son”) is writing and which I hope to make as an Australian/British co-production. I am adapting a classic Australian novel (classified information). Always looking, always hopeful and totally thrilled to be showing my movie at the Toronto Film Festival. I have worked in Toronto many times as an actress, have attended the festival several times as a member of the public. Never dreamed that one day I would be part of it as a filmmaker.