JUSTIN KURZEL

Justin Kurzel was born in Gawler, Australia, in 1974. He made his directorial debut with the
short film Blue Tongue (2004), then went on to win the AACTA Award for Best Direction and
the Film Critics Circle of Australia Award in the same category for his first feature-length film,
Snowtown (2011), which also won the Jury Prize at the Marrakech International Film Festival.
His second feature, a compelling adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth (2015), was
selected for the Official Competition at the Festival de Cannes.
His subsequent feature films
include Assassin’s Creed (2016), based on the hugely popular video-game franchise, and True
History of the Kelly Gang (2019), a new take on Australia’s notorious outlaw Ned Kelly that had
its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Kurzel’s most recent work, Nitram
(2021), had its premiere in the Official Competition at Cannes, where the Best Actor prize went
to Caleb Landry Jones; the film went on to win an array of AACTA Awards, including those for
Best Film, Best Direction, Best Original Screenplay, and all four best performance awards.