Andrew Bovell is an Australian writer who writes for film, theatre and television.
In 1992 he wrote the original screenplay for STRICTLY BALLROOM and in 2001 he went on to adapt his stage play Speaking in Tongues in to the feature film, LANTANA (2001), which won a cascade of awards worldwide including the AWGIE Award for Best Feature Film – Adaptation, the AFI Award for Best Screenplay, the Harper’s Bazaar AFI Screenwriting Prize, the British Independent Film Award for Best Foreign Language Independent Film – English Language, the Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Screenplay and the London Critics Circle Film Award Screenwriter of the Year Award.
His other film credits include; EDGE OF DARKNESS (with William Monahan); HEAD ON (with Ana Kokkinos and Mira Robertson); THE BOOK OF REVELATION (with Ana Kokkinos); BLESSED (with Christos Tsiolkas, Melissa Reeves & Patricia Cornelius) adapted from their stage play Who’s afraid of the Working Class.
Andrew’s most recent screenplay, A MOST WANTED MAN (Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, Philip Seymour Hoffman), was adapted from the novel by John Le Carre, and was directed by Anton Corbijn in late 2012.
Andrew’s television credits include the telemovies THE FISHERMAN’S WAKE and LUST for ABC; PICCILO MONDO for SBS and DOGWOMAN for Channel 9.
Andrew’s theatre credits include Scenes from a Separation (with Hannie Rayson) which premiered at MTC in 1995; Speaking in Tongues which premiered at Griffin Theatre in 1996 and has had seasons at Hampstead Theatre in the UK (2000), Roundabout Theatre, New York (2001), West End Season (2009) and over 50 other productions worldwide; Who’s afraid of the Working Class (with Christos Tsiolkas, Melissa Reeves, Patricia Cornelius and Irine Vela) which was produced by Melbourne Worker’s Theatre (1998) and toured Australia (1999); Holy Day which had seasons at State Theatre Company of South Australia (2001) and STC (2003) won the Louis Esson Prize for Drama at the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and the AWGIE Award for Best Stage Play (2002); When the Rain Stops Falling which premiered at Brink Productions for 2008 Adelaide Festival of the Arts and subsequently toured to STC (2009), MTC/Melbourne International Festival of the Arts (2009), QTC and throughout Australia (2010).
The play won Queensland and Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards for Best Play, the Adelaide Critics Circle Individual Award, Sydney Theatre Award for Best New Australian Work and 3 Greenroom Awards including Best New Writing for the Australian Stage.
Other productions include The Almeida Theatre in London (2009) and The Lincoln Center in New York (2009) where it received 5 Lucille Lortel Awards. Andrew adapted The Secret River from Kate Grenville’s novel which premiered at the Sydney Theatre in 2013, transferring to the Perth International Arts Festival and the Centenary of Canberra.
Andrew’s play Speaking in Tongues played in Auckland at the Herald Theatre from in 2013
Speaker Session: Writing With Andrew Bovell: Why I Write
