Cliff Green

Clifford Green OAM (6 December 1934 – 4 December 2020) was an Australian screenwriter, whose best known work is the script for the film Picnic at Hanging Rock.

Career Green spent his early working life as a country school teacher, which was reflected in his script for the 1974 ABC TV series, Marion.

He was able to write in a wide variety of genres, and his screenplay for Peter Weir’s Picnic At Hanging Rock was a landmark in the renaissance of the Australian film industry in the 1970s. His screenplay for the 1990 TV movie, Boy Soldiers, was the first Australian drama to receive an Emmy nomination.

Green served on the board of the Victorian Film Corporation from 1977 to 1984.

In at least one screenwriting textbook, his writing for television is cited as an example of economy, wit and minimal formal camera directions.

Cliff Green died on 4 December 2020, aged 85, after long illness.

Recognition 1976 - AFI Best Screenplay (Nominated) 1976 – AWGIE (Best Screenplay) 1979 – Picnic at Hanging Rock Nominated for a Saturn Award (Best Writing) 1990 – AWG Richard Lane Award 1991 – International Emmy nomination for the screenplay of Boy Soldiers 2009 – Order Of Australia Medal

Select credits The Ballad of Riverboat Bill (1965) The Steamboat Adventures of Riverboat Bill (1987)