Samuel Van Grinsven Explained

Samuel Van Grinsven is a New Zealand-born Australian film director and screenwriter,^[1] whose debut feature film Sequin in a Blue Room was released in 2019.^[2]

A graduate of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, 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 in a conservative part of Australia.^[2] 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.^[3] It was an AACTA Award nominee for Best Indie Film at the 9th AACTA Awards,^[4] and received commercial distribution in Australia in 2020 before going into wider international distribution in 2021.^[5]

His second feature film, Went Up the Hill, is slated to premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.^[1]

Notes and References

1. Sean Slatter, "Samuel Van Grinsven’s ‘Went Up the Hill’ to join Rebel Wilson’s ‘The Deb’ at TIFF". IF Magazine, 23 July 2024.
2. 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.
3. Don Groves, "Samuel Van Grinsven’s ‘Sequin in a Blue Room’ sets international release". IF Magazine, 24 August 2020.
4. Tom Grater, "‘The Nightingale’, ‘Lambs Of God’ Lead 2019 Australian Academy Awards Nominations". Deadline Hollywood, 23 October 2019.
5. Peter DeBruge, "‘Sequin in a Blue Room’ Review: A Striking, Highly Stylized Plunge Into 21st-Century Gay Hookup Culture". Variety, 21 May 2021.