Oliver Hermanus

Oliver Hermanus is a South African film director and writer. He is known for his films Shirley Adams, Beauty (2011), The Endless River (2015), Moffie (2019), and Living (2022). Beauty won the Queer Palm Award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

Early life and education Oliver Hermanus was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and moved to Plettenberg Bay when he was three. He grew up in a house his father built in the hills, as his "coloured" family was not permitted to live in the town centre under apartheid. His parents were ANC activists. His family buried banned books in the garden, ignored segregated beaches, and homeschooled his older siblings. They commuted to school nearby in the Eastern Cape.

Hermanus graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in film, media, and visual studies from the University of Cape Town.

He later earned his master's degree in film from the London Film School.

Shirley Adams Shirley Adams, Hermanus's first film, released in 2009, relates the story of a single mother raising her paraplegic son, who was injured during a gang fight.

Shirley Adams premiered at the Durban International Film Festival in 2009, where it received several awards, an Denise Newman won Best Actress. Lead actor Deon Lotz won the 2012 SAFTA for Best Actor in a Feature Film for his role in Beauty, Beauty was also part of the Official Selection 2011 for the Prize Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival.

Beauty relates the story of François, a married, closeted, middle-aged Afrikaner, who becomes obsessed with a handsome young lawyer, Christian (played by Charlie Keegan), the son of one of his friends. Beauty was critically praised for being an "unvarnished study of the turbulence of the middle-aged male psyche, but it also addresses the current Afrikaner condition".

Some reviewers and critics noted that the film's subject matter and visuals could be "off-putting" "The debates on the gay issues are amazing, but I'm still yearning for the debate to start on other issues like repression and racial tensions in the movie". The filmmaker presented Beauty at the festival. This film became the first South African film to compete for the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival. In describing Endless River, Hermanus explained, "I wanted to combine in my film a place I'm familiar with the story of violence happening in South Africa".

Moffie Moffie had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival on 4 September 2019. The film is based on an autobiographical novel by South African writer André Carl van der Merwe, relating the author's experiences serving in the South African military during the Apartheid-era war in Angola.

Moffie was one of three Southern African films submitted for consideration in the 2021 Golden Globe Awards Best Foreign Language Film category. Sidney was nominated for a 2021 British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) for Outstanding Debut; the film also received a BFI nomination for Best Film and won the Jury Prize at the 2020 Dublin International Film Festival. Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 90%, based on 94 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10.

Living In October 2020, it was announced that Hermanus would direct Living, his first non-South African film, starring Bill Nighy and Aimee Lou Wood. The film's screenplay was written by the Japanese–British author Kazuo Ishiguro and is an adaptation of the 1952 Japanese film Ikiru. and screened at the 2022 Venice Film Festival. The film received a number of accolades, including British Independent Film Award and British Academy Film Award nominations, as well as multiple acting nominations for Nighy. Nighy and Ishiguro then received Academy Award nominations in the acting and adapted screenplay categories respectively, making Living Hermanus' first film to receive Academy Award nominations.

The History of Sound At the end of October 2021, it was announced Hermanus would adapt Ben Shattuck's short story starring Josh O'Connor and Paul Mescal. Hermanus had developed the script for The History of Sound with Shattuck himself during COVID-19 lockdown.

The film had its world premiere at the main competition of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Palme d'Or, marking Hermanus's first film to do so.

Television For his first television project, Hermanus directed and executive produced Mary & George, a 2024 miniseries starring Julianne Moore as Mary Villiers, Countess of Buckingham for Sky Studios in the UK and AMC in the US.

Awards Winner, Best South African Film, Shirley Adams, 2009 Durban International Film Festival Winner, Best Film, Shirley Adams, 2009 South African Film and Television Awards Winner, Best Director, Beauty, 2012 South African Film and Television Awards

Filmography Feature films

Television