Sophie Hyde is an Australian film director, writer, and producer based in Adelaide, South Australia. She is co-founder of Closer Productions and known for her award-winning debut fiction film, 52 Tuesdays (2013) and the comedy drama Animals (2019). She has also made several documentaries, including Life in Movement (2011), a documentary about dancer and choreographer Tanja Liedtke, and television series, such as The Hunting (2019). Her latest film, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, premiered at the Sundance Festival on 23 January 2022, and was released on Hulu and in cinemas in the UK and Australia.
In 2005, Hyde returned to Adelaide with funding to make a film about women's toilets. Later that year, she reconnected with a college acquaintance, editor and cinematographer Bryan Mason. They began a personal and professional relationship, forming a film company, Closer Productions. As of 2018, they reside in Malvern with their child, Audrey.[1][2]
2010sedit
Hyde and Mason started making videos for nightclubs and dance shows, then moved to documentary films. After becoming friends with choreographer and dancer Tanja Liedtke, they started making a documentary about her. After the dancer's untimely death in a traffic accident in Sydney in 2007, they completed the film and named it Life in Movement, which was named best work at the 2011 Ruby Awards for the arts, won the 2011 Foxtel Australian Documentary Prize[4] and won AACTA nominations for direction and for best feature documentary.[5][1]
Hyde completed her first feature film as director, co-writer and co-producer, 52 Tuesdays, filmed in Adelaide in 2013, then spent a year promoting it.[1] This film earned many accolades, including World Cinema Dramatic Directing Award for Hyde at Sundance in 2014[2] and a Crystal Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.[4]
Hyde's next project was a six-part TV series called Fucking Adelaide (akaF*!#ing Adelaide), commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Screen Australia, aired on national TV from 15 July 2018 and ABC iview[6] after debuting at the Adelaide Film Festival in 2017. A dark comedy about "home, family, identity and the 'small town-ness' of Adelaide", each episode was a part of a story told from a different character’s perspective, including a character played by Hyde's child Audrey and also starring Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Brendan Maclean and Kate Box as three siblings who respond to their mother's (played by Pamela Rabe) request to return to the family home in Adelaide.[7][1] Hyde has said that "It’s about the beautiful side of family, but also the negative side of being around people who feel like they know you, but perhaps don't allow you to change."; also that it reflects her love of Adelaide, which is greater once one has been away. The title started out as a joke, reflecting how Hyde felt about returning to Adelaide after being away — "both comforting and claustrophobic".[3] Co-written by Matthew Cormack and Matt Vesely and produced by Rebecca Summerton,[7] it was in competition at the Series Mania International Festival in France2018,[4] and screened in Berlin.[3]
In April 2022 Screen Australia announced funding for a number of projects, including Jimpa, described as "an inter-generational queer family drama", to be made by Hyde along with co-writer Matthew Cormack, producer Liam Heyen and executive producer Audrey Mason-Hyde.[22]
Hyde is directing the upcoming biopic An Ideal Wife, centring on the sexual awakening experienced by poet-author Constance Lloyd when she found out her husband Oscar Wilde was homosexual.[23]
Closer Productionsedit
Hyde is co-founder, along with Mason, of the film production company Closer Productions, which is based in the Adelaide suburb of Glenside. Other members of the Closer team are Mason (editor, DOP, producer, director); Matthew Bate (writer, director); Rebecca Summerton (producer); Matthew Cormack (writer, sales/delivery); Raynor Pettge (visual effects, editor); and Matt Vesely (development manager, writer, director).[24]
Filmographyedit
Filmedit
As directoredit
Ok, Let's Talk About Me (2005) - short documentary. Producer, director.[25]
The Road to Wallaroo (2006) - short documentary biography. Producer, director.[26]
My Last Ten Hours with you (2007) - short drama/ romanceLGBT-themed film, included in the Boys on Film DVD series (6: Pacific Rim). Director.[27]
Necessary Games (2009) - short drama/fantasy. Producer, co-director (with Kat Worth).[28]
Elephantiasis (2010) - short film. Producer, director. Winner, Best Director, World of Women Film Festival.[29][30]
Life in Movement (2011) - documentary about dancer and choreographer Tanja Liedtke. Producer/director/writer.[31]
52 Tuesdays (2014) - drama. Producer, director, co-writer with Matthew Cormack.[32][33]
Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure (2011) - documentary/comedy/drama (written and directed by Matthew Bate). Producer.[37]
Sam Klemke's Time Machine (2015) - feature length documentary (written and directed by Matthew Bate). Producer.[38]
My Best Friend is Stuck on the Ceiling (2015) - short comic film (written and directed by Matt Vesely). Co-producer.[39][40]
In My Blood It Runs (formerly Kids) (2019) - documentary (directed by Maya Newell and others). Producer.[41]
Televisionedit
Fucking Adelaide (2017) - TV comedy drama mini-series (6 short episodes) for ABC TV. Producer/director.[42][43] AKA F*!#ing Adelaide and F**king Adelaide.[44]
^ abcdeDebelle, Penelope (6 July 2018). "Sophie's independent streak". SA Weekend. The Advertiser. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
^ abcFrangos, Daniela (10 July 2018). "Creative Couples: Sophie Hyde and Bryan Mason". The Broadsheet. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
^ abc"Adelaide on-screen: alumna Sophie Hyde directs a short series". La Trobe University. 11 September 2017. Archived from the original on 17 December 2021. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
^ abcd"Animals". Sundance Institute. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
^"Choreographer's tale tops awards". AdelaideNow. 10 September 2011. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
^ abFrangos, Daniela (2 October 2018). "Fucking Adelaide Goes National". The Broadsheet. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
^"Animals". Adelaide Film Festival. August 2017. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
^ abcdDebelle, Penelope (18 January 2022). "SA director Sophie Hyde's new comedy drama to premiere at virtual Sundance". InDaily. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
^ ab"Asher Keddie and Richard Roxburgh to star in new SBS drama The Hunting: Media release". SBS Television. 17 January 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
^Keast, Jackie (20 March 2019). "'In My Blood It Runs' to make world premiere at Hot Docs". if.com.au. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
^"Good Luck To You, Leo Grande". Cornerstone Films. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
^"Sophie Hyde to direct Emma Thompson in UK sex comedy". IF Magazine. 27 October 2020. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
^"Emma Thompson to Star in Sophie Hyde's 'Good Luck to You, Leo Grande'". Variety. 27 October 2020. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
^"Emma Thompson set to star in Sophie Hyde's new feature, Good Luck to You Leo Grande". Closer Productions. 27 October 2020. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
^"Good Luck to You, Leo Grande". 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
^Hipes, Patrick (11 March 2022). "Searchlight's 'Fire Island', 'Good Luck To You, Leo Grande' & 'Not Okay' Get Hulu Release Dates". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
^P., Maddie (17 June 2022). "How to Watch 'Good Luck to You, Leo Grande': Where to Stream the Sex-Comedy Movie". Collider. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
^Hyde, Sophie (11 August 2022). "The Screen Show" (Audio). ABC Radio National (Interview). Interviewed by Di Rosso, Jason. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
^"Emma Thompson stars in stripped back film Good Luck to you, Leo Grande" (Audio). ABC Radio National. 11 August 2022. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
^"Emma Thompson Wants Women Of All Ages To Enjoy Sexual Pleasure In 'Good Luck To You, Leo Grande". Marie Claire. 20 June 2022. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
^"Screen Australia announces over $1 million to develop 31 projects". Screen Australia. 13 April 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
^Elsa Keslassy, Manori Ravindran; Keslassy, Elsa; Ravindran, Manori (31 October 2022). "Emilia Clarke to Play Oscar Wilde's Wife and Irish Author, Constance Lloyd, in Sophie Hyde's 'An Ideal Wife'". Variety. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
^"Info". Closer Productions. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
^"F*!#ing Adelaide". ABC iview. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
^Beyond Beliefs: Muslims & Non-Muslims in Australia at IMDb
^"Sophie Hyde: Awards". IMDB. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
^Keast, Jackie (23 November 2018). "Guesswork Television, Bunya Productions top SPA Awards". if.com.au. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
Further readingedit
Audio
Behrendt, Larissa (19 May 2022). "Females in film with Sophie Hyde & Chloe Rickard + a lively female liberation drama" (Audio). ABC Radio National.
Video
Sophie Hyde and Matthew Bate in conversation, Sydney Film Festival, 8–19 June 2011 on YouTube - talking about Shut Up Little Man! and Life In Movement; chaired by Richard Harris, CEO of SAFC.
Animals: Alia Shawkat, Holliday Grainger, Sophie Hyde, Emma Jane Unsworth, 8 Feb 2019 on YouTube (15 minutes) - the four women driving the film Animals talk about it.