Oscar nominated film director Scott Hicks to bring exclusive exhibition of his movie memorabilia to Adelaide

Oscar-nominated director, SA’s own Scott Hicks, is giving Adelaide a look inside his own personal collection of film making memorabilia. Find out when and where.

Scott Hicks. Picture: Emma Brasier

Oscar-nominated director Scott Hicks is giving Adelaide an exclusive look into his life behind the camera.

The State Library of South Australia will be the permanent home to thousands of artefacts from Hicks’ expansive film career, including some from his Oscar-nominated smash hit Shine – the film that earned Geoffrey Rush his first Academy Award.

The Advertiser had an exclusive first look at the collection, led by Hicks himself.

Scott Hicks' with 16mm film edits that are part of his personal collection of film memorabilia to be on display in the State Library of Adelaide. Picture: Emma Brasier

“It’s my personal archive of my entire film making career, you know hundreds of boxes of records and things,” Hicks said.

“This (Adelaide) is its natural home. The film Shine was made here, all of our films up to that point were made here, and so this is where it belongs.”

The collection has over 2700 photographs, storyboards, movie posters and movie artwork, as well as a facsimile from Hollywood director Steven Spielberg congratulating Hicks on his Oscar nomination.

“It (receiving the facsimile) was unbelievable at the time,” Hicks said.

“It was just a pinnacle that I never imagined that I would ever experience. Just getting a letter like that really brought it home for me, and then meeting Steven and discussing projects with him, talking about projects he was doing, he was asking my advice about things.”

The entire collection takes up 36 metres of shelf space and selected items will go on public display at the State Library to coincide with the Adelaide Film Festival this month.

Other features include props such as the actual shirt and glasses worn by Rush in Shine, as well as hand-cut film edits and never before seen footage of casting, trailers, daily rushes and edits.

Hicks could have displayed his memorabilia under the lights of Hollywood, but decided on Adelaide, recalling his studies here at Flinders University, wanting other film students to have the same experience.

Scott Hicks' congratulatory letter from fellow filmmaker Steven Spielberg. Picture: Emma Brasier

Hicks has two upcoming films that will have their world premieres at the Adelaide Film Festival this month. Picture: Emma Brasier

“The thing is, Adelaide is a wonderful place to live. The more you see the world, the more that becomes apparent,” Hicks said.

“I sometimes think of as a student, or when I was learning about film, what it might have been like to have a look and see how someone else had done it, and in a way that’s what this is.”

And his filmmaking isn’t over yet. Two films, The Musical Mind and My Name’s Ben Folds – I Play Piano, will have their world premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival this month.

Hicks said David Helfgott, whose life story inspired Shine, will attend and perform at the premiere of The Musical Mind.

State Library director Geoff Strempel said the archive “is an extraordinary record of the life and work of one of the most important Australian filmmakers from the last century and into the 21st century.”

“Our team has carefully collected, processed, digitised and preserved hundreds of thousands of hours of never-before-seen film, including actors screen tests for roles in Hicks’ films and daily rushes in South Australia and abroad that never made the final cut,” he said.

Selected items from the Scott Hicks collection will be on display in the foyer of the State Library from Wednesday, October 18, until Sunday, October 30, 2023.