Creative master and commander of film Russell Boyd receives OAM

Academy Award-winner Russell Boyd says it is ‘quite an honour’ to be declared an Officer of the Order of Australia (OAM) for “distinguished service to the visual arts’’.

Academy Award winning cinematographer Russell Boyd. Picture: Jane Dempster

Academy Award-winner Russell Boyd – a largely self-taught cinematographer who was instrumental in the 1970s and 80s Australian film renaissance – says it is “quite an honour” to be declared an Officer of the Order of Australia (OAM) for “distinguished service to the visual arts’’.

The 77-year-old worked on seminal Australian films including Crocodile Dundee and Picnic at Hanging Rock, and won a cinematography Oscar in 2003 for his work on the Peter Weir film Master and Commander, which starred Russell Crowe.

He said he was “very pleased” his latest accolade has come so soon after his retirement last year, noting how his Oscar win “also came late in my life. I didn’t expect to win it because I was up against some very good films. It was the highlight of my career.’’

He said Master and Commander, set on the high seas during the Napoleonic wars, was one his “toughest” assignments as it was largely filmed on a large-scale model of a sailing ship in a huge water tank, “which had its own set of problems’’.

Boyd, who collaborated with Weir on six films including Gallipoli, Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Year of Living Dangerously, said their creative partnership had also been “a highlight of my career”.

The Sydneysider said as a cinematographer, “I was self-taught to a great degree’’ and “in the right place at the right time” when government film subsidies helped kickstart a revival in filmmaking here in the 70s and 80s.

In the mid-1980s, once he read the script for comedy-action movie Crocodile Dundee, he ­realised “this film has got legs”. It went on to smash box office records, becoming the highest-grossing Australian film nationally and internationally.

While some experts regard the cinematographer as the most important member of a filmmaking team, Boyd, a BAFTA and four-time AFI award winner, said: “Everybody’s important on a film, really. It’s not a one-person show. (Writers, cast and crew) all contribute together. I like it that way.’’

Film, TV and theatre star Judi Farr, who has endured a gruelling battle with cancer, also received an award. Farr, whose credits include 1970s soap Number 96, 80s sitcom Kingswood Country and an award-winning turn in the Sydney Theatre Company’s 1992 version of Women of Troy, received an Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to the performing arts, which she described as “a great honour” and “very lovely”.

The 82-year-old has never retired – “I don’t think actors should ever formally retire. They should just stay available for something that is right for them’’ – and said her six-decade career “just happened … I didn’t plan on being an actor … Most of my life just happened.’’