Andrew Bovell writes for both stage and screen. Andrew’s plays have won numerous awards in Australia including the Victorian Green Room, State Premier’s Awards and the peer-judged AWGIE awards. His films, including Lantana (adapted from his stage play Speaking in Tongues), have won over 10 major awards in Australia and are critically acclaimed internationally. Lantana won Best Screenplay at the 2003 London Critics’ Circle Film Awards.
Andrew co-wrote the feature film Head On with Ana Kokkinos and Mira Robertson. It premiered at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. Andrew also co-wrote the original screenplay of Strictly Ballroom with Baz Lurhmann and Craig Pearce. The Book of Revelation, which Andrew co-wrote with Ana Kokkinos, premiered at the 2006 Melbourne International Film Festival and was screened at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival (Visions Section).
Andrew’s play Holy Day won the Louis Esson prize for Drama at the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and the AWGIE Award for best stage play in 2002. Who’s Afraid of the Working Class, which he co-wrote with Christos Tsiolkas, Melissa Reeves, Patricia Cornelius and Irine Vela, was produced by Melbourne Worker’s Theatre in 1998 and toured Australia in 1999 with Performing Lines. The play was awarded the major AWGIE Award in 1999 as well as the award for Best Stage Play. It also won the Jill Blewitt Award, the Victorian Green Room Award and the QLD Premier’s Award for Drama. The same team of writers later collaborated to write Fever for the Melbourne Worker’s Theatre in 2002.
In 1998 Andrew’s AWGIE award winning play Speaking In Tongues was produced in Sydney and Melbourne and toured to the remaining state capital cities in Australia. In 2000, the play received it’s UK premiere at Derby Playhouse before transferring to Hampstead Theatre in London. This success was mirrored in 2001 at the Roundabout Theatre in New York. In 2002 Speaking in Tongues premiered in France at the Comédie des Champs Elysées and also played in Romania. This play is performed continually, having had seasons in over 20 countries.
Some of Andrew’s other works for the stage include Shades Of Blue (La Mama, 1996), Scenes From A Separation (MTC 1995), Like Whiskey On The Breath Of A Drunk You Love (1992), and Distant Lights From Dark Places (1994), The radio adaptation of this play won the Gold Medal for Drama at the New York Radio and Television Festival and the AWGIE Award for Best Radio Adaptation. In 2004 Sydney Theatre Company presented Scenes From A Separation (co-written with Hannie Rayson) starring Georgie Parker and Max Cullen.
His work for television includes The Fisherman’s Wake (Naked – ABC 1996), nominated for a 1996 AFI award and co-winner with “Blue Murder” of an ATOM Award for best Television drama, Lust (Seven Deadly Sins – ABC 1993), Piccolo Mondo (Six Pack – SBS 1992) nominated for both AFI and AWGIE awards and a telemovie in the Dogwoman series (Simpson Le Mesurier – Network 9, 2000, starring Magda Szubanski). Andrew continues to develop both theatre and film with his new play When the Rain Stops Falling set to premiere at the 2008 Adelaide Festival of the Arts.