John Hillcoat (b. 1960), filmmaker, was born in Brisbane and grew up in Canada, the USA and Europe. Aged eighteen he returned to Australia and studied at the Swinburne Film School in Melbourne. In the 1980s he made music videos for Nick Cave and INXS before co-writing and directing his first feature film Ghosts … of the Civil Dead (1988). It won the AACTA for Best Production Design, and earned nominations in the acting, screenplay, editing and music categories. His third feature film The Proposition (2005) earned AACTA nominations in multiple categories (including Best Director for Hillcoat and Best Screenplay for Cave) and won the AACTAs for cinematography, production design, costume design and original music score (written by Cave and Warren Ellis). Hillcoat collaborated with Cave again on the films The Road (2009) and Lawless (2012). In addition, since 1989, Hillcoat has directed music videos for Elvis Costello, Crowded House, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Manic Street Preachers, Depeche Mode, Massive Attack and many others. His most recent film project is the documentary Bob Dylan: Odds and Ends (2021).
