Welcome to the online home of BFI-winning director Julian Shaw.  Here you’ll find a continually updated array of shorts and interviews, as well as never-before-seen footage from Julian Shaw’s documentary films. This website is also home to the blog ‘It’s Not About The Camera,’ a behind-the-scenes account of the film world.

About Julian Shaw

Julian Shaw with All Black legend John Kirwan.

Julian Shaw is the acclaimed young director of the feature doco Darling! The Pieter-Dirk Uys Story, which won him a British Film Institute Award and IF Independent Spirit Award.

Darling!, which Shaw commenced production on at the age of sixteen, was released theatrically in South Africa and won a Panorama Audience Award at the Berlin International Film Festival, as voted by 20,000 cinema-goers.

Shaw authored the groundbreaking photo novel Modern Odysseus.

Shaw wrote and directed the dramatic short Clearing the Air, starring AFI Winner Marcus Graham and AFI Nominee Rhys Wakefield. For this work he won the prestigious Best Young Australian Filmmaker of the Year Award, 2010 – bestowed by the BBIFF and Sydney International Film School. Shaw also stars as All Black legend John Kirwan in the biographical drama All Blacks Don’t Cry.

He is currently completing the feature documentary Cup of Dreams in association with Screen Australia. Four-years-in-the-making, the film is a highly personal and emotionally charged account of New Zealand’s national team The All Blacks in the build-up to the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Shaw has been a professional film journalist since the age of 15, winning a 2002 Australian Film Institute Award for his work.

As a journalist he has interviewed some of the most famous, and infamous, names in showbiz including Jim Jarmusch, Richard Kelly, Anne Hathaway, Christina Ricci, Britney Spears, David Duchovney, Hugh Jackman, Eric Bana, Zac Efron, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, John Cena and David Cronenberg.

Keynote

SMPTE09 Testimonials and Excerpt

“Julian your keynote speech @ www.smpte.com.au has confirmed what many people regularly forget to do. You have to give before you get. Give of your time and your ideas to open the eyes of those you wish to influence. If you don’t ask – you won’t get. You won’t get the opportunity to walk through doors to explore the future. Williamson and Beresford have worked hard to pave a pathway for the new generation to tell new stories. I look forward to seeing you receive your first Academy Award.”
- Tim Shaw, www.timshaw.com.au

“After your SMPTE conference I was inspired by what you’ve done so far in your life and career… I can’t get the words “Your energy is priceless” that you said out of my head. And so I’d like to say thank you as I haven’t been able to get the motivation I need to finish my book and start planning my doco. Your courage to keep trying has sparked a new life into my creative side. Thank you.”
- Laura Murrell, Second Year Television Production Student

“I was at your talk last Friday morning at SMPTE. I just wanted to say that it was probably the best talk that I had been to all week. Your talk was so inspiring and drummed up passion within me for TV and doco making in the future. Everything you said just made sense.”
- John Hale, Second Year Television Production Student

“Thanks for the amazing inspiration yesterday, I felt so energised. Am now rewriting my creative business plan thanks to you!”
- www.twitter.com/cartedetendre

Julian Shaw @ Harvard University, Kennedy Government School, MA, USA, 2009

For bookings, email Julian Shaw.