Warwick Thornton

Warwick Thornton is an Aboriginal Australian film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. His debut feature film Samson and Delilah won the Caméra d'Or at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and the award for Best Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. He also won the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Film in 2017 for Sweet Country. His latest film, Wolfram premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival on 26 October 2025.

Early life and education Warwick Thornton was born and raised in Alice Springs, the youngest of five children, including Erica Glynn. He is a Kaytetye man. His mother, Freda Glynn, co-founded and was the first director of the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) and was the director of Imparja Television for its first 10 years. although he later declared he became angry with Christianity and did not consider himself religious.

Returning to Alice Springs aged around 15, Thornton was employed as a DJ on Green Bush, a popular radio program run by CAAMA. It played music on request from prisoners, and broadcast to remote communities, also acting as a kind of bulletin board or open telephone line among listeners. (retitled simply Payback) under the auspices of the Indigenous Branch of the Australian Film Commission, with production by Blackfella Films. Rachel Perkins was line producer on the film. He then filmed the documentary Marn Grook: An Aboriginal Perspective on Australian Rules Football.

Thornton shared a personal as well as professional relationship with Beck Cole, and along with producer Kath Shelper called themselves "the trinity", working together from 2004.

In 2009 Thornton wrote, directed and shot his first feature film Samson & Delilah, which won awards including the Camera d’Or for best first feature film at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. The following year he filmed the documentary series Art + Soul about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, which was written and narrated by curator Hetti Perkins. Platform Prize at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival; the Audience Award at the 2017 Adelaide Film Festival; and the Best Feature Film at the 2017 Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

In 2020 he directed a six-part documentary series called The Beach (2020), about himself in isolation on a beach on the remote Dampier Peninsula. The film was shot by his son Dylan River. and was rolled out on social and other digital media and television. In 2024, Thornton told Virginia Trioli, when he appeared as her guest in an episode of the series Creative Types, that he was working on a film that represented his anger at the result of the 2023 Voice referendum.

His 2025 film, Wolfram, premiered on the closing night of the Adelaide Film Festival on 26 October 2025. Based on a real story and set in 1932, the film stars Deborah Mailman as a mother longing for the return of her stolen children. It is a sequel to Sweet Country, and features some of the same characters. Thornton served as director and cinematographer on the film.

In 2024, it was announced that Thornton had boarded a project to create a biopic about Aboriginal leader and warrior Pemulwuy, titled First Warrior, with Andrew Dillon (of That's‑A‑Wrap Productions) producing and co-writing with Jon Bell. Actors Sam Worthington and Jason Clarke, along with filmmakers Phillip Noyce, Stuart Beattie, and Shana Levine, are involved in the project. That's-A-Wrap Productions is an all-Indigenous film production company.

Other activities In 2020 Thornton was co-presenter, with Beck Cole, of a five-day development workshop called the Aboriginal Short Film Initiative, held at South Australian Film Corporation's Adelaide Studios.

Family and personal life Thornton's sister, Erica Glynn, is also a film writer and director.

Thornton was formerly married to filmmaker Beck Cole, whom he met in 1999. The couple shared a personal as well as professional relationship (see above).

Thornton also has a son, Dylan River, who is a filmmaker who has worked with his father.

He also has another daughter, Rona Glynn-McDonald, whose mother is producer Penelope McDonald, principal of Chili Films. Glynn-McDonald is the founding CEO of Common Ground, an organisation focused on reconciliation, and co-founder of First Nations Futures. In 2019 she filmed a series of short films called "Bedtime Stories", based on Dreamtime stories. The films were produced by her mother, while her father and brother also assisted. In the same year, she won the Diana Award for her work in "creating and sustaining positive change for Australia, primarily through sharing stories of First Nations people to a wide audience across Australia". Glynn-McDonald is in a relationship with AFL player and TV personality Tony Armstrong. Green Bush (2005) Nana (2007) Words with Gods (2014), segment

Documentaries Willigan's Fitzroy (2000) The Old Man and the Inland Sea (2005) Burning Daylight (2007) Dark Science (2007), co-director Art + Soul (2010) We Don't Need a Map (2017)

Television Mystery Road (2020), series 2 The Beach (2020), documentary series

In 2009, Thorton was named Northern Territorian of the Year