Paul Cox (director)
Paul Cox | |
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Cox in 2012 | |
| Born | Paulus Henrique Benedictus Cox 16 April 1940 |
| Died | 18 June 2016 (aged 76) Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Education | Nederlandse Fotovakschool 1958-61 |
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| Years active | 1964–2015 |
| Notable work | Man of Flowers 1986 |
| Style | neo-romantic |
| Children | Ezra, Kyra, Marius |
| Awards | Winner – Ilford Photography Award 1971 'Age of Aquarius' – photographer ; Best Film – Australian Film Institute National Film Awards 1982 'Lonely Hearts' – director ; Golden Spike – Valladolid International Film Festival 1984 'Man of Flowers' – director ; Best Director, Best Screenplay – AACTA Awards 1984 'My First Wife' – director AFI Award ; Golden Spur – Flanders International Film Festival 1986 'My First Wife' – director ; Best Director, Best Screenplay – Flanders International Film Festival 1992 'A Woman's Tale' – director ; Chauvel Award – Brisbane International Film Festival 1993 'A Woman's Tale' – director ; FIPRESCI Prize – Taormina International Film Festival 1993 'Innocence' – director ; Grand Prix des Amériques – Festival des Films du Monde 2000 'Innocence' – director ; Jury Prize – Festival des Films du Monde 2003 'The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky' – director ; Grand Prix des Amériques – Festival des Films du Monde 2004 'Human Touch' – director |
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Paulus Henrique Benedictus Cox (16 April 1940 – 18 June 2016), known as Paul Cox, a Dutch photographer with a family background in film and photography who studied in the Netherlands and exhibited pictures from his travels in Asia and Europe, settled in Melbourne, Australia in the mid-1960s.
There he worked commercially, produced books (1970–1980) of his interpretive photojournalism, and co-founded the Photographers' Gallery and Workshop. Having taught himself by making short productions, he was appointed by Lenton Parr to lecture in film in the photography department at the art school Prahran College (1968). There, his work further developed and he made his first feature Illuminations, from which his film company, an enduring crew and cast from his own circle, took its name.
Cox left art education at the end of 1979 to produce a major feature almost annually, becoming recognised as "Australia's most prolific film auteur" who achieved several box-office successes and numerous awards despite uncompromisingly eschewing commercialism.
Cox wrote three autobiographies, the last, Tales from the Cancer Ward (2011), recounts his undergoing cancer treatment while continuing to make films. Force of Destiny he made in the year before he died.