Samantha Lang

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Samantha Lang
Lang at the Australian premiere of Brave, 2012
Born
London, England
Occupation(s)Film director
Screenwriter
Years active1993-present

Samantha Lang is an Australian film director and screenwriter. Her production company is Handmaid Media.

Early life and education

Samantha Lang was born in

North Sydney Girls' High School, earning her HSC in 1985.[1]

She grew up watching

Hiroshima Mon Amour.[2]

In 1986, she spent a year at

Universite de Grenoble, at Grenoble in France, studying French literature
and linguistics.[1]

After beginning her university studies in 1987, in 1989 Lang was awarded a scholarship from

Vaclev Havel was coming to power, and young people who had previously been barred from attending university because of their parents' political leanings had just entered film school.[2] In 1990 she graduated with a Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Visual Communications from University of Technology Sydney.[1]

Lang graduated, in directing, from the Australian Film Television and Radio School in 1995.[1]

She is fluent in French and German.[1]

Career

Lang's graduate short film, Audacious (1995[3]), earned her some recognition and won an award at the Sydney Film Festival. She directed an episode in Twisted Tales, a mystery drama TV series narrated by Bryan Brown, in 1996.[2]

Early in her career, Lang worked for advertising firm Cherub Pictures, directing

television commercials. In the 1990s she did some stills photography and made some short films.[1]

Lang's first feature film The Well, an adaptation of the novel by Elizabeth Jolley written by Laura Jones, produced by Sandra Levy and starring Miranda Otto and Pamela Rabe, was selected for 30 film festivals, including Sundance Film Festival,[1] and was entered into competition for the Palme d'Or in the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.[4][5]

private detective who falls in love with a suspect (McGillis) in the disappearance of a young woman. The film is based on the 1994 verse novel of the same name by Australian poet Dorothy Porter
.

Saint Tropez.[1]

In 2017, Lang directed her first VR film, Prehistoric VR.[5][6] that is installed at Australian Centre for Moving Image (ACMI)

Brown Lake (2021) is an artist moving image work of "eco-cinema", narrated by Mia Wasikowska,[7] that has been exhibited at Asia Pacific Triennale (2002) at GOMA, ACMI (2021) and other galleries and screening events.

Lang has in development an adaptation of the stage comedy Kill The Messenger by Nakkiah Lui.[5]

A six-part TV drama series, Night Games, based on the book by Anna Krien, is in development.[8][9]

In April 2022,

executive produced by Emile Sherman (The King's Speech) and Lang.[10]

Production companies

Lang's production company is called Handmaid Media.[5]

Since 2019 and as of 2022, Lang is collaborating with Garth Davis, Emile Sherman and Iain Canning in a new production company called I AM THAT, as an executive producer and head of development.[9][5][11]

Other roles and activities

Lang was Head of Directing at

AFTRS from 2010 to 2016, where she has mentored, supervised and lectured postgraduate film students. She has also mentored emerging filmmakers through Screen NSW, the HIVE Fund[5] at Adelaide Film Festival,[12] and Screen Australia.[5]

She was elected as President of the Australian Directors' Guild (ADG) in 2015,[5] relinquishing the role in December 2021 after serving for 12 years on the board in total. Under her leadership, there was huge growth in the number and diversity of members, and during this time she was one of the founding members of Screen Australia's Gender Matters program.[13] She was passionate about encouraging more diverse directors, wanting to "broaden and support directors across a greater breadth and depth, industrially, professionally and culturally".[14]

As of 2022, Lang submitted her thesis for a Doctor of Philosophy (Communications) in 'Posthuman Screen Poetics' at University of Technology Sydney.[5]

Filmography

Awards

Lang's films have won many awards, including at the

Australian Film Institute Awards and the Sydney Film Festival. Carlotta won three of the five AACTA Awards in the categories in which it was nominated.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Samantha Lang" (PDF). Cherub Pictures. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 July 2008. Retrieved 10 September 2008.
  2. ^ a b c "Interview with Sam Lang". Signet. 23 July 1997. Archived from the original on 22 February 2013.
  3. IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
  4. ^ "Festival de Cannes: The Well". Festival de Cannes. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "About". Samantha Lang. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  6. ACMI
    . 7 October 2018. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  7. ACMI
    . April 2021. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  8. ^ "In development". Samantha Lang. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  9. ^ a b "Garth Davis Joins Forces with See-Saw Films to Launch Production Company 'I AM THAT'". FilmInk. 4 November 2019. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  10. ^ "Screen Australia announces over $1 million to develop 31 projects". Screen Australia. 13 April 2022. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  11. ^ "Samantha Lang joins Garth Davis/See-Saw Films joint venture". IF Magazine. 4 November 2019. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  12. ^ "Hive Fund". Adelaide Film Festival. 11 June 2020. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  13. ^ "Rowan Woods elected as president of Australian Director's Guild". Mumbrella. 12 December 2021. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  14. ^ Lang, Samantha (8 October 2020). "Be bold, be real, be rigorous: Samantha Lang on creativity and change in this weird moment". ScreenHub Australia (Interview). Interviewed by Siemienowicz, Rochelle. Retrieved 13 April 2022.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Samantha_Lang&oldid=1184221105"