Samuel Van Grinsven is a New Zealand-born Australian film director and screenwriter,
[Sean Slatter]
"Samuel Van Grinsven’s ‘Went Up the Hill’ to join Rebel Wilson’s ‘The Deb’ at TIFF"
''IF Magazine
''IF Magazine'', also known as ''Inside Film'', ''IF: Australia's Filmmaker Magazine'', and ''IF: The Magazine for Independent Filmmakers'', is an Australian print and online trade publication for screen-content professionals in Australia and N ...
'', 23 July 2024. whose debut feature film ''
Sequin in a Blue Room
''Sequin in a Blue Room'' is a 2019 Australian independent queer coming-of-age, mystery and drama film directed by Samuel Van Grinsven, in his feature film debut. It was written by Van Grinsven and Jory Anast. The film stars Conor Leach in hi ...
'' was released in 2019.
[James Kleinman]
"Exclusive Interview: filmmaker Samuel Van Grinsven on his seductive queer coming-of-age tale Sequin in a Blue Room"
''The Queer Review'', 11 April 2021.
A graduate of the
Australian Film, Television and Radio School
The Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS), formerly Australian Film and Television School, is Australia's national screen arts and broadcast school. Opened to students in 1973 as Film and Television School (FTS), after accredita ...
, Van Grinsven made ''Sequin in a Blue Room'' as his graduation project. Centred on the coming-of-age of a gay teenager, the film was based on Van Grinsven's own experiences growing up
queer
''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...
in a conservative part of Australia.
[ The film premiered in June 2019 at the 66th Sydney Film Festival, where it was the winner of the Audience Award for best Australian narrative feature. It was an ]AACTA Award
The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, known as the AACTA Awards, are presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). The awards recognise excellence in the film and television industry, ...
nominee for Best Indie Film at the 9th AACTA Awards
The 9th Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards (generally known as the AACTA Awards) is an awards ceremony to celebrate the best of Australian films and television of 2019. The main ceremony was held at The Star (Sydney), The St ...
, and received commercial distribution in Australia in 2020 before going into wider international distribution in 2021.[Peter DeBruge]
"‘Sequin in a Blue Room’ Review: A Striking, Highly Stylized Plunge Into 21st-Century Gay Hookup Culture"
''Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'', 21 May 2021.
His second feature film, ''Went Up the Hill
''Went Up the Hill'' is a 2024 thriller drama film directed by Samuel Van Grinsven. The film stars Dacre Montgomery as Jack, a man returning to his native New Zealand to attend the funeral of his birth mother, from whom he was taken away and p ...
'', premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival
The 49th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from September 5–15, 2024.
The festival opened with David Gordon Green's film ''Nutcrackers (film), Nutcrackers'', and closed with Rebel Wilson's directorial debut film ''The Deb (fil ...
.[
]
References
External links
*
1993 births
Living people
21st-century Australian screenwriters
21st-century Australian male writers
21st-century Australian LGBTQ people
Film directors from Sydney
Writers from Sydney
Australian male screenwriters
Australian LGBTQ film directors
Australian LGBTQ screenwriters
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