Ben Ferris is an Australian filmmaker.[1] He was a co-founder of the Sydney Film School, of which he was the Director from 2004 to 2018.[2] In 2020 he co-founded Breathless Films, an AACTA-nominated production company that has produced the Australian feature films "Birdeater" (2023), "Tennessine" (2023), "Love Road" (2023), "The Longest Weekend" (2022), and "Lonesome" (2022).[3]
As a film writer/director he has won major international awards, including the Grand Prix at the Akira Kurosawa Memorial Short Film Festival in Tokyo, Japan for his short film "The Kitchen" (2003)[4] and the Grand Prix at the One Take Film Festival[5] in Zagreb, Croatia for his short film "Ascension" (2004).[6] He has written and directed the feature film "Penelope" (2009)[7] (with an original score by renowned music composer Max Richter)[8] which screened in National Competition at the 56th Pula Film Festival[9] and the critically acclaimed[10] [11] feature hybrid drama-documentary film "57 Lawson" (2016).[12] In 2017 he won a residency at the prestigious Cité internationale des arts in Paris.[13] In 2018 he was shortlisted for the Eurimages Project Lab Award at the 53rd Karlovy Vary Film Festival for his feature film "In(di)visible".[14] In 2022 he was nominated for an AACTA in his role as producer of the feature film "Lonesome".[15]