Ivan Sen

Ivan Sen (born 1972) is an Indigenous Australian filmmaker. He is a director, screenwriter and cinematographer, as well as an editor, composer, and sound designer. He is co-founder and director of Bunya Productions, and known for the 2013 film Mystery Road, its sequel Goldstone, and the 2023 mystery-crime film Limbo.

Early life Ivan Sen was born in 1972 in Nambour, Queensland, the second child of Donella and Duro Sen. His mother Donella belongs to the Gamilaroi nation of northern New South Wales, and Duro was born in Croatia to a German father and Hungarian mother. This semi-autobiographical The film, produced on a $2.5 million budget, won him global acclaim, screening at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and winning the Premiere First Movie Award at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival and the 2002 Best Director Award at the Australian Film Institute Awards.

In 2005, his SBS documentary Yellow Fella was screened in the section Un Certain Regard at the Cannes International Film Festival.

In 2009, the Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival held at the Sydney Opera House saw the world premiere of Sen's Fire Talker, a documentary biopic about political activist, Aboriginal footballer, and statesman Charlie Perkins.

In the same year, Sen and David Jowsey set up Bunya Productions, in order to produce their own films. They used the TV revenue from their earlier works to finance the production of his second feature-length film, Dreamland,

His third feature Toomelah (2011), received a prolonged standing ovation from the audience as it screened in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival. The actors were welcomed with celebrity status and Peter Robb described Daniel Connors, the leading 9-year-old non-professional actor as "[handling] the international media like a pro."

His fifth feature, Goldstone, a sequel to Mystery Road, opened the Sydney Film Festival in June 2016 and opened in cinemas on 7 July 2016. It features actors Aaron Pedersen, Jacki Weaver, Alex Russell, David Gulpilil, David Wenham and Tom E. Lewis.

In 2018, Sen acted as executive producer on the ABC TV production of Mystery Road, a six-part series based on characters featured in the movie of the same name and sequel.

Themes Commentators often point to landscape, land and place as one of the most crucial groups of motif in Ivan Sen's films. Sen documents Lewis as he hits the road to search for his Welsh father's place of burial and, at the same time, a missing part of his own identity.

Recognition In recognition to his contribution to the town of Winton in Central West Queensland where Mystery Road and Goldstone were filmed, Sen was honoured with a star on Winton's Walk of Fame during The Vision Splendid Outback Film Festival in 2016.

Filmography

Feature drama 2023 - Limbo 2022 – Expired 2016 – Goldstone – Bunya Productions, Dark Matter 2013 – Mystery Road – Bunya Productions, Mystery Road Films, Screen Australia 2011 – Toomelah – Bunya Productions, Sydney. The murder is still unsolved. 2007 – Men's Gathering – ABC 2006 – The Dreamers – ABC 2006 – Broken Borders – ABC 2006 – Aunty Connie – ABC 2006 – Shifting Shelter 3 – ABC 2005 – Yellow Fella – SBS 2005 – Who was Evelyn Orcher? – ABC 2000 – Shifting Shelter 2 – ABC 1998 – Vanish – ABC 1997 – Shifting Shelter 1 – ABC

Awards Year Award Category Film Result 1998 Cork International Film Festival Best International Short Film Tears 1999 Australian Film Institute Best Short Fiction Film Wind 2000 Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival International Competition 2002 Australian Film Institute Best Direction Beneath Clouds Best Music Best Screenplay Berlin International Film Festival First Movie Award Golden Berlin Bear Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards Best Director Best Music IF Awards Best Direction 2005 Cannes Film Festival Yellow Fella 2011 Asia Pacific Screen Awards UNESCO AwardToomelah Cannes Film Festival Cinemanila International Film Festival International Competition 2012 AACTA Awards Byron Kennedy Award 2014 Best Direction Mystery Road Best Original Screenplay Best Editing Australian Film Critics Association Awards Best Director Best Screenplay Best Cinematography Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards Best Director Best Script Best Cinematographer Best Editing Best Music 2016 AACTA Awards Best Direction Goldstone Best Original Screenplay Best Editing Australian Film Critics Association Awards Best Director Best Screenplay Best Cinematography BFI London Film Festival Best Film Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards Best Director Best Script/Screenplay Best Music Best Cinematography Best Editor Sydney Film Festival Best Film Toronto International Film Festival Platform Prize