Jonathan Worsley

Jonathan Worsley is a young Australian director first and foremost; but is often creative director for other projects. He is also the protégé of acclaimed director Baz Luhrmann. Jonathan's short films, documentaries, advertising campaigns and music video clips have been highly acclaimed in Australia and overseas.

Biography

Jonathan approached Baz in 2001 to take him on as an apprentice. He achieved this goal by sending him a series of elaborate pop-up books to gain his attention, and then sat in Baz's gutter with a cardboard sign saying 'Bazmark or Bust' - a catch cry used in the Fox commissioned series 'Hollywood or Bust' which tracks Jonathan's journey to become a feature film director.

Jonathan worked with Baz on a number of projects - from his re-interpretation of ‘La Boheme’, the Chanel No 5 commercial starring Nicole Kidman and Rodrigo Santoro, development of ‘Alexander’ (which was ultimately not made) and the development of his upcoming film ‘Australia’.

Jonathan was the first student ever to be accepted straight from high school into VCA Film and Television School, the breeding ground for most of Australia’s top filmmakers.

At sixteen years old, Jonathan won Best Documentary at the Australian Media Awards. He would then go on to do an internship at Channel 9, before age 16 where he became the only student still at high school to be selected for News Limited’s industry course AWARD, a course designed to sift the advertising creatives of tomorrow. After completing the course and becoming top student, he was then invited to participate in AWARD Supergroup, a mentorship program with the world’s top creative directors. His advertising work received Finalist at the Young Guns International Advertising Awards, CFI Best Advertising Campaign.

While journying in Paris, L’Oreal Luxury sighted Jonathan’s work, and he was invited by Armani and L’Oreal to come up with a concept for one of their new fragrances, direct the commercial and creative direct the campaign worldwide. Jonathan turned down this opportunity choosing instead to focus on his yet to be released film.

In 2005, Jonathan formed a partnership with Branding and Marketing guru, Louise Kinsley; and together they created the production company KOKORO in order to produce Jonathan’s first feature film. The screenplay was selected as Best Un-produced Screenplay by MTV and although details are yet to be released, it has been confirmed in Music Australia Guide some of Australia’s big names in music, Iva Davies and Molly Meldrum will be the film's album producers as well as William Baker (Kylie Minogue's long time creative director).

The official website and blog is

Awards and Accolades

Jonathan’s awards include: Best Documentary at the Australian Media Awards, Finalist at the Young Guns International Advertising Awards, CFI Best Advertising Campaign, Top student News Limited’s AWARD Supergroup.

His short films have been awarded places at film festivals nationally and internationally - Shanghai, Italian Short film festival (highly commended), Mumbai (winner Golden Elephant) Auburn (4th), Cairnes (2nd), Melbourne (People’s choice), Australian Cinematographers Society (Highly Commended), Australian Guild of Screen Composers (Best Movie Theme).

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu