Bonnie is an award-winning cinematographer who works across drama, documentary and video art. Her unique talent expresses itself in a boldly poetic and emotionally resonant aesthetic. She is a brilliant collaborator and works intensively with the Director to realize a vision for the screen.
Bonnie’s work has screened at major International film festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto, Tribeca, Sydney & Melbourne. She has received recognition for her work from the Australian Cinematographer’s Society on numerous occasions.
Her most recent projects include STATELESS, released in 2020, a six-part series for Matchbox and ABC, created by and starring Cate Blanchett, directed by Emma Freeman and Jocelyn Moorhouse; THE HUNTING, 2019, a four-part series for Closer Productions and SBS, directed by Ana Kokkinos and Sophie Hyde; ROMPER STOMPER, 2017, a major hit for streaming service STAN; and the acclaimed, multi-award winning SEVEN TYPES OF AMBIGUITY, 2016, a six-part series for Matchbox Pictures/NBCU/ABC, directed by Glendyn Ivin, Matt Saville and Ana Kokkinos. For this she won an AACTA Award for Best Cinematography, becoming the first female cinematographer ever to win this award.
Bonnie shot her debut feature film in Iran. MY TEHRAN FOR SALE, directed by Granaz Moussavi, premiered at the 2009 Adelaide Film Festival, and screened at international film festivals including Toronto, Pusan and Rotterdam. Other feature films quickly followed, including Zak Hilditch’s much heralded debut, THESE FINAL HOURS, selected for Director’s Fortnight, Cannes, 2014; and Kulikar Sotho’s THE LAST REEL, set in Cambodia and winner of the Spirit of Asia Award at the 2014 Tokyo Film Festival.
She worked with indigenous choreographer/director Stephen Page on SAND, a chapter of the Tim Winton adaptation of THE TURNING, which screened at the 2015 Berlinale, and continued this successful collaboration on SPEAR, a visually stunning film story told through movement and dance, which premiered at the Toronto and Adelaide film festivals in 2015, for which she was nominated for Best Cinematography at the 2016 AACTA awards.
In 2017, she shot Miranda Nation’s debut feature, UNDERTOW, which premiered at the 2018 Melbourne International Film Festival; and Partho Sen-Gupta’s SLAM, which premiered at the 2019 Sydney Film Festival. In 2018, Bonnie shot Rachel Ward’s PALM BEACH which opened the 2019 Sydney Film Festival and director John Sheedy’s debut feature H IS FOR HAPPINESS which premiered at the 2019 Melbourne Film Festival, released in cinemas in early 2020.
Working across a range of documentary projects from observational to highly stylized, Bonnie’s documentary credits include LANI’S STORY, RECIPE FOR MURDER, A LIFE EXPOSED, two episodes of Matchbox Pictures ANATOMY ARTS SERIES: EYE AND HAIR, and time-lapse and landscape photography for SBS series FIRST CONTACT, and Meryl Tankard’s moving portrait of a dancer, MICHELLE’S STORY.
In the field of video art, Bonnie has worked with artist Angelica Mesiti for many years, photographing RAPTURE, winner of the Blake prize, and CITIZENS BAND, which won the Anne Landa Award. Recent collaborations include the inaugural Ian Potter Moving Image commission for ACMI – THE CALLING – a three channel installation shot on location in Greece, Turkey and the Canary Islands and MOTHER TONGUE, a dual channel work commissioned for the European Capital of Culture Program in Aarhus, Denmark. Their latest project is ASSEMBLY, a multiscreen work created for the Australian Pavilion of the 2019 Venice Biennale.
Check out Bonnie’s official website here.
