- Born
- Height6′ 2″ (1.88 m)
- Known for his bold career growth, Australian director Justin Kurzel, who, after the striking debut feature The Snowtown Murders (2011), which conquered hearts of people on many festivals, has chosen a Shakespearean adaptation (Macbeth (2015)) starring famous international film actors Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard in the main roles as his second film, then was taking even more bold choice to take on blockbuster project, a screen adaptation of Assassin's Creed (2016) videogame, as only third of his features.
Kurzel was born on August 3, 1974 in the South Australian Gawler. His brother is the musician and composer Jed Kurzel, who is often working with him on various projects. Both grew up in Gawler.
Kurzel began studying at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney at the early 1990s.
At first he was making a music videos for the rock band The Messhall, founded by his brother. In 2005 future filmmaker made his first short film Blue Tongue (2005). Then, after six years, he released The Snowtown Murders (2011), a film about the mass murderer case starring Daniel Henshall which was praised and acclaimed both by the critics and by the audience for the striking experience of which is a truly cold and terrifying film it gives to the viewer. Kurzel had also written the script for the film, for which he was awarded the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award as Best Director in 2011, Gold Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival, won Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Directing and was nominated for Australian Directors Guild Award, British Film Institute Awards,
Then he wrote and direct one segment of The Turning (2013), the Boner McPharlin's Moll, for which, alongside all the other directors attached to the making, he was nominated for Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award for Best Directing.
In 2015, a turning point for Kurzel's career, he directed a successful adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy Macbeth (2015), in which Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard took the main parts. The film was screened at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2015, when it received a Special Mention in FIPRESCI Prize, Special Mention on Critics Wee, and compete for the Palme d'Or, Golden Camera, Queer Palm and Critics Week Grand Prize. The film was very well received amongst the viewers and critics, was nominated for variety of awards across the globe and was presented with a special premiere showing at Edinburgh, Scotland, where all the main filming took place. For directing this film he was nominated for British Independent Film Awards as the Best Director.
During the shooting, the strong working relationship between Kurzel and actors Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard has been established, which resulted in announcing on December 2016 that he will helm the film adaptation of the popular computer game Assassin's Creed (2016) starring both of the actors alongside Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson, Charlotte Rampling and Kurzel's wife Essie Davis. Making of such a high-profile studio picture established Kurzel in the world of high-budget filmmaking, giving him many doors open for his future possible projects.
Kurzel currently resides in London, UK with his wife, actress Essie Davis, and their children.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Dmitry Nolan
- SpouseEssie Davis(2002 - present) (2 children)
- No opening credits, instead of them a brief text prologue, which makes his films a bit more close to the literature.
- Frequently casts Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard in the main roles.
- A shots of light sliping through the churches' windows.
- Usually explores the themes of violence, mind and sanity.
- Long wide shots of mesmerizing landscapes.
- Does not like computer graphics in movies and purposely avoided them when he made all of his films, especially Assassin's Creed (2016).
- Despite his interest in traumatized and emotionally damaged characters and dark, almost evil themes, his own favorite films are comedies.
- He was thirty-seven years old when he directed his first feature film.
- Was nominated for Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or with his second feature, Macbeth (2015). His first feature, The Snowtown Murders (2011), was screened at Cannes' Critics Week in 2011 and won the jury prize.
- Before directing Macbeth (2015), he worked as a designer of a stage production of the play in which his wife played Lady Macbeth.
- [press conference for Nitram (2021) at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival] I live in Tasmania - I have for the last four years - it's the most beautiful place in the world, it's why we moved there, to bring up our children, and I met my wife, Essie, who plays Helen in the film, the year the Port Arthur shootings happened in 1996. So I'm extremely aware. When Shaun [Shaun Grant] sent me the script, I took a very, very, very deep breath. But I saw something in the script and in the way he was trying to tell it and what he was trying to say that I found incredibly moving and compelling and quite shocking in regards to the step-by-step dismantling of this character. But also this moment in the film where it sort of crystallises - for me what the film is about - when this man walks into a gun store, at probably their most dangerous, and is able to buy an absurd amount of weapons without a licence. There was something about this scene; for the first time I really felt the importance of what gun reform is. It was something that I walked into very gently and we still are. It's a very, very deep wound in Tasmania and also Australia and we feel it every day as we walk with this film.
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