Martin Butler (born 1952) is an Australian film and television producer, director, and screenwriter. He is best known the 2015 award-winning film '' Tanna'', and usually collaborates with filmmaker Bentley Dean and editor Tania Nehme.

Early life and education

Martin Butler was born in England in 1952. He studied politics and economics at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

, and afterwards worked for the manager of The Who. He migrated to Australia in 1981.

Career

Butler has spent much of his career as a long-form current affairs television producer. He spent six years working on ABC Television (Australian TV network), ABC Television's ''Four Corners (Australian TV program), Four Corners'', where he directed and produced several episodes, and served for 10 years as supervising or associate producer on ''Foreign Correspondent (TV series), Foreign Correspondent''. Moving to SBS Television, he became supervising producer for Dateline (Australian TV program), Dateline. ''First Footprints'' is a four-part television series directed by Butler and Bentley Dean and narrated by Ernie Dingo, which premiered on 14 July 2013 on ABC Television (Australian TV network), ABC Television. The series won the Walkley Documentary Award in 2013. In 2009, he co-directed ''Contact (2009 film), Contact'' with Bentley Dean. The film tells the story of 20 Martu people who in 1964 became the last people in the Great Sandy Desert to have come into contact with Europeans. The film won many awards. Other films, made in collaboration with Bentley Dean, include '' Tanna'' (director, producer, and writer) (2015), and ''A Sense of Self'' (director, producer) (2016). For ''Tanna'', he received a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at 89th Academy Awards.

Accolades

*2013: Winner, Walkley Documentary Award in the Walkley Awards, for ''First Footprints'' *2017: Winner, Walkley Documentary Award, for ''A Sense of Self''; awarded to Liz Jackson, Martin Butler, Bentley Dean, and editor Tania Nehme

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Martin Australian film producers Australian film directors Australian screenwriters Living people 1952 births Walkley Award winners