Known for Directing
Bruce Beresford (/ˈbɛrɪsfərd/; born 16 August 1940) is an Australian film director, opera director, screenwriter, and producer. He began his career during the Australian New Wave, and has made more than 30 feature films over a 50-year career, both locally and internationally in the United States. He is a two-time Academy Award nominee and a four-time AACTA/AFI Awards winner out of 10 total nominations. Beresford's films include Breaker Morant (1980), Tender Mercies (1983), Crimes of the Heart (1986), Driving Miss Daisy (1989) – which won four Oscars including Best Picture, Black Robe (1991), Silent Fall (1994), Double Jeopardy (1999), Mao's Last Dancer (2009), and Ladies in Black (2018). He was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay for Breaker Morant and Best Director for Tender Mercies. He won AACTA/AFI Awards – Best Direction (2) for Don's Party (1976) and Breaker Morant, and Best Screenplay (2) for Breaker Morant and The Fringe Dwellers (1986). In addition, four of Beresford's films have been nominated for the Palme d'Or, and four have been nominated for the Golden Bear. He has also been nominated for two BAFTA Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Directors Guild of America Award, and won a Genie Award. Description above from the Wikipedia article Bruce Beresford, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Born
August 16, 1940 (age 86)
Birthplace
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Filmography
68 films, 3 shows


The Travellers
2025 · 1h 37m
country: Australia
Stephen Seary, a stage designer, returns to Australia to visit his dying mother, but a quick trip descends into family tensions, past conflicts, and romantic complications, jeopardizing his return to Europe and the opera that awaits.


Ladies in Black
2018 · 1h 49m
country: Australia
Adapted from the bestselling novel by Madeleine St John, Ladies in Black is an alluring and tender-hearted comedy drama about the lives of a group of department store employees in 1959 Sydney.


Flint
2017 · 1h 36m
country: United States
A woman deals with the toxic water scandal in Flint, Michigan, and the effect it has on her family.


Mr. Church
2016 · 1h 44m
country: United States
A unique friendship develops when a little girl and her dying mother inherit a cook - Mr. Church. What begins as an arrangement that should only last six months, instead spans fifteen years.


Peace, Love & Misunderstanding
2011 · 1h 36m
country: United States
A conservative lawyer named Diane takes her two teenage children Jake and Zoe to meet their estranged, hippie grandmother in Woodstock after her husband asks for a divorce.


Mao’s Last Dancer
2009 · 1h 57m
country: Australia
At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao's cultural delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet. In 1979, during a cultural exchange to Texas, he falls in love with an American woman. Two years later, he managed to defect and went on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet and as a principal artist with the Australian Ballet.


The Contract
2006 · 1h 36m
country: United States
Attempting to recover from a recent family trauma by escaping into the woods for a peaceful hiking trip, an ex-lawman and his young son stumble across a dangerous contract killer.
Orpheus
Orpheus
2006
country: United States
A guy falls for a girl who draws him into a modern-day cult.


And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself
2003 · 1h 52m
country: United States
In 1914, the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa invites studios to shoot his actual battles against Porfírio Diaz army to raise funds for financing guns and ammunition. The Mutual Film Corporation, through producer D.W. Griffith, interests for the proposition and sends the filmmaker Frank Thayer to negotiate a contract with Pancho Villa himself.


Evelyn
2002 · 1h 32m
country: Ireland
Desmond Doyle is devastated when his wife abandons their family on the day after Christmas. His unemployment, and the fact that there is no woman in the house to care for the children—Evelyn, Dermot and Maurice—make it clear to the authorities this is an untenable situation. The Catholic Church and the Irish courts decide to put the Doyle children into Church-run orphanages.


Bride of the Wind
2001 · 1h 39m
country: United Kingdom
A biopic of Alma Mahler, the wife of composer Gustav Mahler (as well as Walter Gropius and Franz Werfel), and the mistress of Oskar Kokoschka.


Double Jeopardy
1999 · 1h 45m
country: Germany
Libby Parsons, wrongly convicted of her husband Nick's murder, thinks he is still alive. She survives the long years in prison with two burning desires sustaining her -- finding her son and solving the mystery that destroyed her once-happy life. Standing between her and her quest, however, is her parole officer, Travis Lehman. Libby poses a challenge to the cynical officer, one that forces him to face up to his own failings while pitting him against his superior and law enforcement colleagues, as she plunges into a desperate fight for justice, survival, and revenge.


Sydney: A Story of a City
1999 · 45m
country: Australia
Virginia, a young and adventurous woman, travels from England to Sydney, Australia, in search of her Australian ancestors.


Paradise Road
1997 · 2h 2m
country: Australia
A group of English, American, Dutch and Australian women creates a vocal orchestra while being imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp on Sumatra during World War II.


Last Dance
1996 · 1h 43m
country: United States
Upon taking a new job, young lawyer Rick Hayes is assigned to the clemency case of Cindy Liggett, a woman convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death. As Hayes investigates the background for her case, the two begin to form a deep friendship, while the date for her execution draws nearer.


Silent Fall
1994 · 1h 41m
country: United States
Having seen the double murder of his parents, autistic youth Tim Warden is sent to therapy with controversial therapist Dr. Jake Rainer. Jake tries to probe the silent child about what he saw, but he gets more details about the Wardens' household dynamics from Tim's teenage sister, Sylvie. As he spends more time with the siblings, Jake learns that the Wardens' marriage was not as perfect as it seemed, and he uncovers other new details that might help solve the crime.


A Good Man in Africa
1994 · 1h 34m
country: South Africa
Morgan Leafy is a secretary to the British High Commissioner to an Africa nation. Leafy is a man that makes himself useful to his boss, the snobbish Arthur Fanshawe, who has no clue about what's going on around him, but who wants to use his secretary to carry on his dirty work, which involves getting one of the most powerful men in the country to do business with his country.The young secretary has an eye for beautiful women around him, especially Hazel, a native beauty, with whom he is having an affair. Things get complicated because Sam Adekunle, a man running for president of the country, wants a favor from Leafy in return after he has accepted the invitation to visit London. The proposition involves swaying a prominent doctor's opposition to a plan that will make Adenkule filthy rich.


Rich in Love
1992 · 1h 45m
country: United States
Warren Odom, a rich Southern gentleman, is left in a state of shock when his wife, Helen, leaves him unexpectedly. With Helen gone, Warren's kindhearted teenage daughter, Lucille, cares for him and tries to cheer him up. Warren slowly starts to recover, and begins a relationship with another woman, Vera Delmage. However, his life is complicated when his older daughter, Rae, arrives in town pregnant.


Black Robe
1991 · 1h 41m
country: Australia
Missionary Father LaForgue travels to the New World in hopes of converting Algonquin Indians to Catholicism. Accepted, though warily, by the Indians, LaForgue travels with the Indians using his strict Catholic rules and ideals to try and impose his religion.


Mister Johnson
1991 · 1h 41m
country: United States
In 1923 British Colonial Nigeria, Mister Johnson is an oddity -- an educated black man who doesn't really fit in with the natives or the British. He works for the local British magistrate, and considers himself English, though he has never been to England. He is always scheming, trying to get ahead, which lands him in a lot of hot water.


Driving Miss Daisy
1989 · 1h 39m
country: United States
The story of an old Jewish widow named Daisy Werthan and her relationship with her black chauffeur, Hoke. From an initial mere work relationship grew in 25 years a strong friendship between the two very different characters, in a time when those types of relationships were shunned.


Her Alibi
1989 · 1h 34m
country: United States
A writer of BAD detective novels is in full writers' block. He pretends to be the alibi of a beautiful woman who was arrested for murder at first thinking her innocent, but as she shows more and more interesting abilities (such as knife throwing) he begins to doubt his first assessment.


Aria
1987 · 1h 37m
country: United Kingdom
Ten short pieces directed by ten different directors, including Ken Russell, Jean-Luc Godard, Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford, and Nicolas Roeg. Each short uses an aria as soundtrack/sound, and is an interpretation of the particular aria.


Crimes of the Heart
1986 · 1h 45m
country: United States
Three sisters try to come to grips with the meaning of their mother's suicide.


The Fringe Dwellers
1986 · 1h 38m
country: Australia
The story of an Aboriginal family's attempts to forge a new life for themselves within the segregated society. At the urging of headstrong teenager Trilby, the Comeaways relocate from their family camp, to a house in the main town.


King David
1985 · 1h 54m
country: United Kingdom
This is a movie about the life of Israel's king David.


Tender Mercies
1983 · 1h 32m
country: United States
Alcoholic former country singer Mac Sledge makes friends with a young widow and her son. The friendship enables him to find inspiration to resume his career.


Puberty Blues
1981 · 1h 27m
country: Australia
Two teenage surf chicks from the southern suburbs of Sydney ingratiate themselves with a new group of boys.


The Club
1980 · 1h 36m
country: Australia
The club buys a talented young player, Geoff, for a record sum of money. The team members do not like their new star and friction develops immediately. Game after game is lost until Geoff begins to realize that there is more at stake than just his own career.


Breaker Morant
1980 · 1h 47m
country: Australia
During the Boer War, three Australian lieutenants are on trial for shooting Boer prisoners. Though they acted under orders, they are being used as scapegoats by the General Staff, who hopes to distance themselves from the irregular practices of the war. The trial does not progress as smoothly as expected by the General Staff, as the defence puts up a strong fight in the courtroom.


Money Movers
1978 · 1h 32m
country: Australia
A group of crooks plan a heist to steal twenty million dollars from a Security Firm counting house.


The Getting of Wisdom
1977 · 1h 41m
country: Australia
Based on the 1910 novel by Henry Handel Richardson, thought to be an account of her own schooldays at the Presbyterian Ladies College in Melbourne. A young girl, Laura Tweedle-Rambotham who grew up in the outback, and at around the age of 14, is sent off by her poor mother who has scrimped and saved for her to go to a prestigious women’s private college in Melbourne, the Presbyterian Ladies College.


Don's Party
1976 · 1h 30m
country: Australia
On the night of the 1969 federal election, Don Henderson invites a group of friends to celebrate a predicted Labor Party victory, much to the dismay of his wife, Kath. The Hendersons and their nine guests drink, joke, make love, and fight, all while coming to terms with their individual struggles in life.


Side by Side
1975 · 1h 24m
country: United Kingdom
Glam Rock musical comedy about two clashing nightclubs


Barry McKenzie Holds His Own
1974 · 1h 33m
country: Australia
Barry McKenzie's Aunt Edna is kidnapped by Count Von Plasma, the vampire head of an isolated Eastern European dictatorship who mistakes her for the Queen of England and thinks that kidnapping her will draw tourists to his country. Barry and his mates set out to rescue her and bring her back to Australia.


The Adventures of Barry McKenzie
1972 · 1h 54m
country: Australia
Barry McKenzie sets off for England with his aunt, Edna Everage, to advance his cultural education. Bazza is an innocent abroad, fond of beer, Bondi and beautiful sheilas, but he soon settles into the Australian ghetto in Earls Court, where his old mate Curly has a flat.
Barbara Hepworth at the Tate
Barbara Hepworth at the Tate
1969 · 12m
country: United Kingdom
Dame Barbara Hepworth discusses her work in a voiceover as we see a record of her retrospective exhibition, held at the Tate Gallery in 1968.
Film For Guitar
Film For Guitar
1966 · 2m
country: Australia
A montage of a Nigerian athletics meeting cut to music by Okoli Obazo


King-Size Woman
1965 · 8m
country: Australia
A colorful account of Nigeria's brilliantly painted buses with their biblical names, edited to the beat of Nigerian rock and roll.
It Droppeth as the Gentle Rain
It Droppeth as the Gentle Rain
1963 · 6m
country: Australia
Short film is based on the ballet 'Les Fausses Sceptiques' by the French film scenarist and surrealist poet Jacques Prevert