Billy Mackinnon Full CV

BILLY MacKINNON

Screenwriter / Producer /Script Editor

e-mail: mackinnonwilliam@hotmail.com

Billy MacKinnon has written or produced four internationally successful feature films, and script edited many more, including Jane Campion’s Palm d’Or and Oscar-winning ‘The Piano’. Among his clients are BBC films, Australian Film Commission, Joint Venture Zurich, Paradigma Fims Geneva, Gaumont Paris, Scottish screen, and Jan Chapman productions, Sydney. He has garnered numerous international writing awards including best European film (Rotterdam Tiger) and best British feature film (Edinburgh). He has served as an academic editor in social anthropology for the Max Planck Institute and Humboldt University Berlin, and traveled and worked extensively in Australia, Europe, Africa, and Central Asia. His most recent feature film ‘Dawn’ , based on the novel by Nobel Laureate Elie Weisel, was shot in Tel Aviv and Cologne, completed in 2015, and premiered 2016 at Geneva, Washington, and Houston film festivals. In addition, he has worked as poet/songwriter for numerous performance art/dance groups in Zurich, Berlin, and Seoul. His present feature film is set in Cameroon and planned for production 2017, funded from Bern/Geneva.

FEATURE FILMS

SCRIPT EDITOR SHONGRAN (2015) 100 mins.                                                                   Director: Munsur Ali. Limelight Films. Feature shot 2015 in Bangladesh and London.

WRITER DAWN (2014) Feature Film, based on the Nobel prize-winning novel by Elie Wiesel. Producers Samir Aldin, Dschoint Ventschr Film Productions, Zurich.

WRITER HIDEOUS KINKY (1998) 100 mins. 35mm                                                               Director: Gillies MacKinnon. Greenpoint Films in association with BBC Films & AMPL Paris. Film shot in Marrakech with Kate Winslet & Said Taghmaoui

PRODUCER / WRITER SMALL FACES (1995) 100 mins. 35mm                                                     Director: Gillies MacKinnon Produced in assocation with BBC films, Scottish Screen & Skyline Productions.

SCRIPT EDITOR THE PIANO (1991) 100 mins. 35mm                                                                      Director: Jane Campion. CIBY 2000 & Jane Chapman Productions. With Holly Hunter and Harvey Keitel.

CO-PRODUCER / SCRIPT EDITOR SWEETIE (1989) 95 mins. 35mm                                                                        Director: Jane Campion. Arenafilm, Sydney

SCRIPT EDITOR TERRA NOVA. (1994) 95 mins. 35mm                                                                           Director: Paul Middleditch. Producer, Peter Masterton. Rhino Films, Sydney.

SCRIPT EDITOR/DIALOGUE CONSULTANT (1999) French/English adaptation. WRONG BLONDE. Feature Film. 35mm. Writer/Director : Michel Blanc. Producer, Claude Berri. Pathe Films, Paris.

SCRIPT EDITOR/ DIALOGUE CONSULTANT METHOD (2003) 90 mins. 35mm. Director, Duncan Roy. Production : Simeon Films. With Liz Hurley.

FILMS AND DOCUMENTARIES FOR TELEVISION

PRODUCER THE LAST CROP (1991) 58 mins. 16mm Drama.Director: Sue Clayton. Film Australia, Australian Film Commission, Australian Broadcasting Commission in association with Zenith Productions & Channel 4 UK. With Kerry Walker and Noah Taylor.

PRODUCER / SCRIPT EDITOR MOTHERLAND (1994) Documentary set in Latvia. 50 mins. 35mm, Director : Kriv Stenders. In association with The Australian Film Commission

PRODUCER / SCRIPT EDITOR PASSING GLORY (1986) 50 mins. 16mm Drama. Director : Gillies MacKinnon . National Film School UK,Scottish Film Fund, Channel 4 UK. With Alan Cummings.

SHORT DRAMAS

WRITER EXEC PRODUCER  AUFZUG (2015) 28 mins. Director Emily Kuhnke. 3LK prods,

Berlin.

WRITER DIE LAUGHING (2013) 25mins. Director Richard West. Producer Ben Pullen

WRITER INNEN-NACHT. (2003) 25min German language short. 16mm. Shot Barsalo island, Finland. Director, Tobi Durr. Producer, Till Hildenhagen

WRITER IVO. (2000). 10 minute monolgue for BBC Films, Scotland.

WRITER/DIRECTOR TUBE TALES (2000) 15 mins of Feature Film. Horsepower and Sky Films.

PRODUCER BECAUSE YOU CAN (1991) 16mm. 18mins. Director John Evan Hughes. Australian Film Commission.

PRODUCER DARK AISLE (1991) 16mm. 20mins. Director John Evan Hughes. Australian Film Commission.

PRODUCER HERE HE COMES (1985) 16mm 18 mins. Director Gillies MacKinnon. National Film and Television School, UK. With Shane Connaughton

IN DEVELOPMENT

WRITER COSTA Feature Film, 2nd draft completed. Producers Flying Moon Productions, Scottish Screen and Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung.

WRITER/PRODUCER A GLASSHOUSE. Stageplay funded by Arts Council of Great Britain.

WRITER GRASSLANDS 2^nd draft funded by Bundes Ampt Kultur, Bern.

.

AWARDS

For 'PASSING GLORY': BEST SCOTTISH FILM, Edinburgh Film Festival

For 'SWEETIE': AUSTRALIAN FILM INSTITUTE Best Film.

GEORGES SIDOUL AWARD.

LOS ANGELES CRITICS AWARD ,

'IN COMPETITION" Cannes '89

For 'THE PIANO': ACADEMY AWARD OSCAR Best Foreign Screenplay.

BAFTA AWARD Best Foreign Screenplay.

PALM D'OR Best Film Cannes Film Festival.

AUSTRALIAN FILM INSTITUTE Best Film

For 'THE LAST CROP': AUDIENCE PRIZE, Galway Film Festival

For 'MOTHERLAND': DENDY/SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL AWARD Best Film.

ETHNIC AFFAIRS AWARD, Sydney Film Festival.

SILVER PLAQUE Chicago Film Festival.

In Competition AMSTERDAM DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL

For ‘SMALL FACES’: BEST BRITISH FEATURE FILM, Edinburgh Film Festival.

BEST NEW EURPEAN FEATURE FILM, (TIGER) Rotterdam Film Festival,

SMALL FACES voted in top 100 British films of century by British Film Institute November 1999.

For AUFZUG : Best Writer/Director, White Rose Festival USA 2016.

LECTURES / TOURS / ACADEMIC

SCOTTISH FILM COUNCIL, screenwriting, Inverness 1998

SCOTTISH FILM COUNCIL, screenwriting, Inverness 1999

BRITISH COUNCIL, screenwriting and production, Sydney and Melbourne 1998

EDINBURGH FILM FESTIVAL, Documentary production 1995

EDINBURGH FILM FESTIVAL, screenwriting 1999

BAFTA, screenwriting 1998.

ENCOUNTERS film festival 2005 & 2006 screenwriting

BRITISH COUNCIL Berlin 2006 screenwriting

BAYREUTH university 2009 screenwriting

FILMARCHE Berlin 2015 screenwriting

BAMENDA FILM GROUP 2111/12. History of European cinema. Cameroon.

EDITOR: Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Germany. Analysis of identity politics in Cameroon. Prof, Michaela Pelican Cologne University.2014 Berghahn publishers NY

EDITOR: Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Germany. Recommendations to Somalian Provisional Government. Prof Gunther Schlee, MPI Halle.2006 Berghahn publishers NY

EDITOR: Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Germany. PhD Analysis internal migration, Uzbekistan. 2012.

EDITOR: Humboldt University, Germany. Prof. Rosita Akhmova, University Ghent.  Architecture and social rupture, Macedonia. 2013 Berghahn publishers NY

ROYAL NATIONAL THEATRE, LONDON. Fellowship writer. 2006.

CORRESPONDENT (formerly) No. 1064 AL JAZEERA TV network.  

PERFORMANCE/ POETRY

WRITER: NEXT. For Physical Poets, Seoul International Festival 2014

WRITER : SONG OF THE SPARROW For Open Space Festival, Berlin 2015

WRITER: NOTES ON SREBRENICA , BLO International festival, Berlin 2015

WRITER : MAL AVISSO (70 mins) for Drift dance company, Zurich 2016

WRITER:  NEXT  For Kopi theatre, Berlin 2016

WRITER/PRODUCER : IVO : English International Theatre, Berlin 2016.

OTHER

Dartington College of Arts and Tagore University Calcutta. Numerous young person’s small jobs included dishwashing in London and Athens, agricultural labourer in Crete, roulette croupier, English teacher. Founded production companies Blastfurnace and World’s End Sydney, and was responsible for well over one hundred commercials and music videos.  Also literary reviewer for Liberation Paris, Chicago Times, Dublin Tribune.

Interviews included Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal, Anita Brookner, Germaine Greer. I am currently resident in Berlin and Athens.