STEPHAN ELLIOTT
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Stephan’s career kicked off shooting hundreds of weddings from the age of 13 to 18 and now he turns green with the first bars of a bridal waltz. He entered the film industry as an assistant director /editor on a series of dreadful Australian films before stepping up to the director’s chair at 26 with the comedy caper Frauds, starring Phil Collins and Hugo Weaving. This first feature was selected for competition at the Cannes Film Festival 1993. He announced his second feature - a script to be churned out in 12 days en route to the south of France. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) starring Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce. Priscilla went on to become one of the most successful Aussie films of all time, racking up an Academy Award, BAFTA and AFI awards for Best Costume Design and a Best Make Up/Hair. Other nominations include a Writers Guild Award and Golden Globe for Best Comedy/Musical.
Stephan then committed career suicide when he was talked into screening his unfinished black comedy Welcome to Woop Woop, starring Rod Taylor, Barry Humphries and Rachel Griffiths - in Cannes 1997. It was booed out of the festival. The film has since grown into a massive underground cult. He countered with a change of genre - the thriller Eye of the Beholder (1999) starring Ewan McGregor, Ashley Judd, KD Lang and Jason Priestley. The film premiered at Venice that year winning the Brussels sci-fi and fantasy festival – an award also shared by Frauds. |
Stephan then took an interesting career turn by looking for inspiration in the French Alps – and promptly skiing off them. He broke his pelvis and fractured his legs and back. After 4 years of recuperation, Stephan got back on the horse with Priscilla The Musical and a Noel Coward film adaptation, Easy Virtue starring Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes, Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas.
Stephan then shot his first Australian comedy in almost two decades – a ‘wedding gone wrong disaster movie’ aptly titled A Few Best Men in conjunction with the team who created Death At A Funeral. Staring Twilight’s Xavier Samuels, Kris Marshall and Olivia Newton John.
He is currently shooting the feature RIO I LOVE YOU – the follow up to the hugely successful PARIS, je t’amie in Brasil.
He still skis - it’s not as dangerous as filmmaking.
Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Stephan then shot his first Australian comedy in almost two decades – a ‘wedding gone wrong disaster movie’ aptly titled A Few Best Men in conjunction with the team who created Death At A Funeral. Staring Twilight’s Xavier Samuels, Kris Marshall and Olivia Newton John.
He is currently shooting the feature RIO I LOVE YOU – the follow up to the hugely successful PARIS, je t’amie in Brasil.
He still skis - it’s not as dangerous as filmmaking.
Priscilla Queen of the Desert