It’s time to get excited for BSS with our first speaker and session announcement for 2022! Shaun Grant will join us in person from Australia to discuss screenwriting in a session called The Art of Adaptation.
Shaun’s most recent feature film, Nitram, about the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania premiered In Competition at Cannes in 2021. It was the first Australian film to do so in a decade and it won the prize for Best Actor. Nitram went on to win 8 AACTA Awards, including Best Film and Best Original Screenplay.
Shaun’s critically acclaimed debut feature film, Snowtown, directed by Justin Kurzel, was selected for Cannes’ Critic Week in 2011. He has gone on to write screenplays for several feature films including Berlin Syndrome directed by Cate Shortland (2019), Jasper Jones directed by Rachel Perkins (2019), and Penguin Bloom (2020) starring Naomi Watts.
Justin and Shaun reunited for True History of the Kelly Gang which premiered at TIFF 2019, opened NZIFF and won several awards including the AWGIE for Feature Film Adaptation.
Shaun is a master of adaptation, be it from source material or historic events. He has scripted some dark moments in history with complexity, making them very compelling to watch. Shaun will talk to Rob Sarkies about his recent work, how he creates powerful characters that move an audience, how he turns novels into screenplays and how every writer must find their own truth when adapting true stories.
Read Sean’s full biography here
You can watch his latest movie Nitram here:
