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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

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Emile Sherman

2012
Dave Tacon

type C photograph on paper (sheet: 34.6 cm x 48.2 cm, image: 26.9 cm x 40.6 cm)

Emile Sherman (b. 1972), film producer, graduated from the University of New South Wales before beginning his career with a documentary about his great-great-uncle Chatzkel, a Lithuanian Jew who lived through both world wars and the Bolshevik revolution. The low-budget Sample People (2000) made with a law-school friend and starring Kylie Minogue and Ben Mendelsohn, followed. His first company, Sherman Pictures, financed films including Rabbit Proof Fence (2002); Oyster Farmer (2004); Candy (2006) and Disgrace (2008), the latter based on the JM Coetzee novel and starring John Malkovich. In 2008 he founded See-Saw Films with UK producer Iain Canning; their early productions included the Greek-Australian comedy The Kings of Mykonos (2010); Oranges and Sunshine (2010), South Solitary (2010). In 2008 See-Saw co-founded the finance company Fulcrum Media Finance, which has since provided finance to more than twenty films including the critically-acclaimed Animal Kingdom (2010). The King's Speech (2010), which starred Colin Firth, Helena Bonham-Carter and Geoffrey Rush, reaped four Academy Awards including Best Picture as well as the BAFTA awards for Best Film and Outstanding British Film. Sherman and Canning received the Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award at the 2011 Producers' Guild of America Awards. See-Saw's subsequent film ventures include Shame (2011); Dead Europe (2012), based on the novel by Christos Tsiolkas; the screen adaptation of Robyn Davidson's Tracks (2013); Lion (2016), based on the memoir by Saroo Brierly; and Ammonite (2020), a fictionalised account of the life of nineteenth-century palaeontologist Mary Anning. Having produced Jane Campion's television drama series Top of the Lake (2013) and Top of the Lake: China Girl (2017), See-Saw Films co-produced Campion's psychologically intense, revisionist Western The Power of the Dog (2021). It won numerous awards, including the BAFTA for Best Film and the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture (Drama) in 2022. As well as his involvement in his family's companies The Sherman Group and The Sherman Foundation, Emile Sherman is a director of the animal protection institute Voiceless.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
© Dave Tacon/Copyright Agency, 2024

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. Works of art from the collection are reproduced as per the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

Artist and subject

Dave Tacon (age 36 in 2012)

Emile Sherman (age 40 in 2012)

© National Portrait Gallery 2024
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Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia

Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. The use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

The National Portrait Gallery is an Australian Government Agency