Gene Sherman with Family, After Tillers, After Freud, After Watteau

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.

Dr Gene Sherman AM (b. 1947) is Chairman and Executive Director of Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, a family philanthropic enterprise dedicated to the public exhibition of significant contemporary art from Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. Sherman was born in South Africa, and first came to Australia with her parents in 1964, but they moved back again after less than a year. At university in Johannesburg she met Brian Sherman, then studying accountancy; they married in 1968 and emigrated to Sydney in 1976 with their son and daughter. During and after completion of a PhD in French literature at the University of Sydney in 1981, she spent more than fifteen years researching and lecturing, at the university and at Ascham girls' school. In 1986, funded by Brian Sherman, she established the Sherman galleries in Sydney. At Sherman Galleries, which employed more than a dozen staff, she initiated and organised up to sixteen Sydney-based exhibitions annually, as well as Australian and international touring exhibitions aimed at foregrounding Australian contemporary art and linking art and artists in the Asia-Pacific region. Also hosting various projects, forums and discussion panels, Sherman Galleries emerged as one of Australia's major private art institutions. Gene Sherman spent 21 years as the gallery's proprietor and director before setting up the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation in 2008. Sherman now undertakes a full programme of mentoring, advising, presenting to museums, universities and collectors, art writing, art prize judging and radio talks. She sponsors a scholarship for a student in the master's in arts administration program at the University of New South Wales, a studio at Bundanon, and a contemporary Australian art research room at the Power Institute, University of Sydney. In the past Gene and Brian Sherman have sponsored prizes for sculpture at various universities and in relation to events including Sculpture by the Sea, and an Artbox Inc. prize for young artists. Gene Sherman is a former deputy chair of the board of the National Portrait Gallery. She is a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and has an honorary D Litt from the University of Sydney.

Brian Sherman AM (1943–2022) was a leading philanthropist, company director and animal rights activist. Born in South Africa, he came to Australia with his family in 1976 and in 1981 founded Equitilink, which he subsequently built into one of the largest independent funds management groups in Australia. Meanwhile, with his wife Dr Gene Sherman AM, he became a major collector and supporter of the arts, serving as a director of Sherman Galleries (founded in 1986) and the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation. Sherman was a director of Network Ten from 1994 to 2007, and he was chair of finance and a board member of the Sydney Organising Committee for the 2000 Olympic Games. In 2004, with his daughter Ondine, he co-founded the animal rights organisation Voiceless, of which he was joint managing director. President of the Australian Museum Trust from 2001 to 2009, he contributed $1 million to the Museum’s redevelopment strategy, Project Discover, and in 2022 he received the Australian Museum Research Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his contribution to animal welfare and the advancement of scientific research, and of his lifetime support of the Museum. He was deeply interested and involved in stem-cell therapy initiatives, funding a top-level annual think tank of leading researchers worldwide. Sherman was also an important contributor to the Jewish community through his work as a director of the Sherman Centre for Culture and Ideas and the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council. In 2014, he and Gene Sherman were jointly awarded the B'nai B'rith Gold Medal for their outstanding contributions to community service, social justice, philanthropy and anti-discrimination. Named a Member of the Order of Australia in 2004, Sherman held an honorary doctorate from the University of Technology, Sydney, and was the author of two memoirs: The Lives of Brian (2018); and Walking Through Honey: My Journey with Parkinson's Disease (2022), which was published several months before his death at age 79.

Ondine Sherman (b. 1974), author and animal rights activist, grew up in Sydney and attained her undergraduate degree in communications from University of Technology Sydney. In 2004, with her father Brian Sherman AM, she co-founded the animal rights organisation Voiceless, of which she is managing director. Sherman holds an MA in environmental studies and is a director of the conservation NGOs Action for Dolphins, the Society for Compassionate Conservation and This is My Earth (TiME). Her first book, The miracle of love, a memoir reflecting on her journey as the mother of twin boys diagnosed with MCT8 Deficiency – a rare genetic disorder – was published in 2013. Her other books are the young adult fiction titles Sky (2017), Snow (2019) and Star (2020); and Vegan Living (2020); and she has written for a number of news publications and websites including the Sydney Morning Herald and mamamia.com.au. Now residing in Israel, Sherman is a director of the MCT8 Foundation and the Sherman Foundation.

Gift of Dr Gene Sherman AM in memory of Brian Sherman AM (1943-2022). Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program 2023.
© Jenny Sages