Inside the Rehearsal Room with Bruce Beresford

Speakers

• More details about Bruce Beresford

  Bruce Beresford

  Born in Sydney. Degree from Sydney University, 1963. Head of Production for British Film Institute Production Board (London) 1966-71, and film advisor to Arts Council of Great Britain. Bruce Beresford has directed over 30 feature films. Probably his best known film is “Driving Miss Daisy “ (written by Alfred Uhry) which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1989. He was nominated for an Academy award for the script of “Breaker Morant” (1979), & direction of “Tender Mercies”(1981), “Black Robe”(1992) won the Canadian academy award, Bruce won “Best Director”. Other films include “Crimes of the Heart” (1995), “The Fringe Dwellers” (1996),“Double Jeopardy”(1999), “Evelyn” ( 2002), “Paradise Road” (2001),“Mao’s Last Dancer” (2009) , “Mr Church” (2015) with Eddie Murphy, a 3 hour “Bonnie and Clyde” (2013) for TV, “And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself”(with Antonio Banderas) – for TV.. and part 4 of a TV series “Roots” (2015). “Flint” with Queen Latifah and Betsy Brandt, “Ladies in Black” with Angourie Rice, Julia Ormond, Vincent Perez etc (2018/19). His most recent film is “The Travellers” (2025), currently showing around the world on Netflix. He has directed operas in Italy, USA and Australia. For Opera Australia he directed Andre Previn’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” (2007) & Carlisle Floyd’s “Of Mice and Men” in 2011. In 1982 he directed the Australian premiere of Richard Strauss’s “Elektra” (premiered in Europe in 1911!). In 2012 he directed, at the Sydney Opera House, the Australian premiere of Erich Korngold’s “Die Tote Stadt” (“The Dead City”). He has also directed “Rigoletto” for LA opera, “The Crucible” for Washington Opera, “Cold Sassy Tree” for Houston Grand Opera, “Sweeney Todd” for Portland Opera, “Girl of the Golden West” for Spoleto. Britten’s “Albert Herring” for Brisbane Opera. Rossini’s “Otello” for Melbourne Opera. Verdi’s “Macbeth”(2023) for Melbourne Opera. In 2012 “Of Mice and Men’ won the Green Room award for Best Opera production and Best direction. A section of Bruce’s diaries were published in a book titled “Josh Hartnett Definitely Wants to do This”. “There’s a Fax from Bruce” (2016) is a collection of faxes between Bruce and producer Sue Milliken. His most recent book, a collection of reminisences about films and the people who worked on them is - “ The Best Film I Never Made”. Bruce also writes articles for “The Spectator”, ‘The Oldie” and “Quadrant”.

• More details about Zachary Garred

  Zachary Garred

  Zac Garred is a Newcastle born Australian actor, producer and writer working between Australia and Los Angeles. Over twenty years he has starred in productions such BLUE WATER HIGH, AUSTRALIAN GANGSTER, GENERAL HOSPITAL and NCIS: LA. In 2024 Zac was selected by Screen NSW as one of their Emerging Producers for their Emerging Producer Placement. This year he featured in APEX with Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton and stars in and produces the upcoming horror/comedy SITE UNSEEN which opens in cinemas early 2027.