Andrew Bovell (born 23 November 1962) is an Australian writer for theatre, film and television.Austlit - Andrew Bovell
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Life

Bovell was born on 23 November 1962 in

Kalgoorlie, Western Australia Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area include ...

and completed his secondary school education in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

. He graduated from the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany and various other facilitie ...

with a BA and followed that with a Diploma in Dramatic Arts at the

Victorian College of Arts The Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) is the arts school at the University of Melbourne in Australia. It is part of the university's Faculty of Fine Arts and Music. It is located near the Melbourne city centre on the Southbank campus of the ...

, in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Writing career

His

AWGIE The AWGIE Awards is an annual awards ceremony conducted by the Australian Writers' Guild, for excellence in screen, television, stage and radio writing. The awards began in 1967. The awards are judged by over 50 writers, most of whom are previo ...

award-winning play, ''Speaking in Tongues'',(1996) has been seen throughout Australia as well as in Europe and the US and Bovell adapted it for the screen as ''

Lantana ''Lantana'' () is a genus of about 150 species of perennial flowering plants in the verbena family, Verbenaceae. They are native to tropical regions of the Americas and Africa but exist as an introduced species in numerous areas, especially in ...

'' (2001). Both the play and screenplay have been published by

Currency Press Currency Press is a leading performing arts publisher and its oldest independent publisher still active. Their list includes plays and screenplays, professional handbooks, biographies, cultural histories, critical studies and reference works. H ...

along with ''After Dinner'' (1988), ''Holy Day'' (2001), ''Scenes from a Separation'' (written with

Hannie Rayson Hannie Rayson (born 1957) is an Australian playwright and newspaper columnist. She is recognised as one of Australia's most significant playwrights. Biography Rayson was born in Melbourne, Victoria and graduated from the University of Melbourne ...

) (1995) and ''Who's Afraid of the Working Class?'' (1998), written with Patricia Cornelius, Melissa Reeves, Christos Tsiolkas and Irene Vela. ''Who's Afraid of the Working Class?'' was adapted to film as ''Blessed (2009 film), Blessed''. ''When the Rain Stops Falling'' (2008) won the 2008 Victorian Premier's Literary Award and the 2008 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards. In 2010, a production of ''When the Rain Stops Falling'' opened in New York. ''The New York Times'' reviewed the play describing it as "a fitfully moving but diagrammatic play about the long legacy of unnatural acts" and commenting that "the relationships eventually emerge with an emotional clarity that the play’s elliptical structure works against".

Plays

* ''After Dinner (play), After Dinner'' * ''Holy Day''; winner of the 2002 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, Victorian Premier's Literary Award and

– Stage Award. * ''Who's Afraid of the Working Class?''; winner of the 1999 AWGIE Awards, AWGIE Award – Best New Work & Best Stage Play, Victorian Green Room Awards, Green Room Award, and the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, Queensland Premier's Literary Award. * ''Speaking in Tongues''; - first performed at the Griffin Theatre Company, Sydney and winner of the 1997

– Stage Award. * ''When the Rain Stops Falling''; winner of the 2008 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, Queensland Premier's Literary Award and Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, Victorian Premier's Literary Award, as well as the 2009 Victorian Green Room Awards, Green Room Award,

– Stage Award, and Sydney Theatre Award – Best New Australian Work. *''The Secret River (play), The Secret River'', adapted for the stage from the novel ''The Secret River'' by Kate Grenville; the play was presented by the Sydney Theatre Company in January 2013. *''Things I Know to be True, Things I Know To Be True''

Films

Bovell's film credits include ''

'' (2001) and ''Blessed (2009 film), Blessed'' (2009) as mentioned above. Bovell also co-wrote the screenplay for ''Strictly Ballroom'' (1992) with Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce and ''Head On (1998 film), Head On'' (1998) with Mira Robertson and Ana Kokkinos. His other film credits include ''Edge of Darkness (2010 film), Edge of Darkness'' (2010) starring Mel Gibson, ''The Book of Revelation (film), The Book of Revelation'' (2006) and ''Iris (2016 film), Iris'' (2016). He wrote the thriller film ''A Most Wanted Man (film), A Most Wanted Man'', directed by Anton Corbijn, based on the novel ''A Most Wanted Man'' by John le Carré.

Awards jury

Bovell is on the jury (competition), jury for the Feature Fiction and Documentary awards at the Adelaide Film Festival, scheduled for October 2020.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bovell, Andrew 1962 births Australian screenwriters Helpmann Award winners Living people Writers from Adelaide People from Kalgoorlie Australian male dramatists and playwrights Australian male screenwriters 20th-century Australian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Australian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Australian male writers 21st-century Australian male writers