Geoffrey Simpson, one of Australia’s most successful
directors of photography, is also known for the significant work he has
done all around the world. He recently filmed Somebody’s Son in Ireland,
for director Terry George, which premiered at this
year’s Cannes Film Festival. Other film credits include Little Women
for director Gillian Armstrong; Peter Weir’s Green Card,
shot on location in New York; John Avnet’s Fried Green Tomatoes; Anthony
Minghella’s Mr Wonderful, starring Matt Dillon;
Gillian Armstrong’s The Last Days of Chez Nous; John Seale’s ’Til There
Was You; and Avnet’s The War, which featured
Kevin Costner.
Simpson began his career working on documentaries
such as The Migrant Experience, Nicaragua No Pasaran and Where Death Wears
a Smile. In 1981 he won the Golden Tripod ACS Award for the dramatised
television documentary Breaking Point, which he followed in 1982 with a
corporate documentary Electricity and the feature film Centrespread, both
of which won Golden Tripod ACS Awards that year.
A recipient of numerous accolades, he won the 1985
Golden Tripod ACS Award and Milli Award as Cinematographer of the Year
for the feature film Playing Beattie Bow and won an ACS Merit Award in
the same year for Scott Hicks’ Call Me Mr Brown. The Shiralee, an Australian
television mini-series, won him the Silver Tripod ACS Award in 1987, and
in 1988 he won the Golden Tripod ACS Award for Kennedy Miller’s tele-feature
Riddle of the Stinson. Simpson then completed the acclaimed feature film
The Navigator, directed by Vincent Ward, which won both the 1988 Australian
Film Institute Award and the 1989 New Zealand Film & Television Award
for Cinematography.
