by Liam Heitmann-Ryce-LeMercier
Australian writer-director Kyle Portbury has garnered Australian Directors Guild nominations for everything from features to animated shorts, and he’s nabbed an Emmy along the way.
With new $75m biblical animated feature David set to hit Australian cinemas, on which he was one of three writers, and his 2024 film The Hopeful hitting the top 10 at the US box office, Portbury is finally enjoying the fruits of an almost 20 year film industry adventure.
“The David writing process involved living in Cape Town, multiple research trips to Israel, navigating biblical scholarship, international co-production dynamics, and adapting ancient material for contemporary global audiences,” Portbury says about the process of writing the animated Biblical epic.
Presently based in Newcastle, NSW, Portbury’s film career has followed an extended procession of good luck and good timing, stoked with his Emmy win in 2018 for animated short film Truth.
Picked up for distribution by American broadcaster PBS, the film was never intended to be anything other than a creative outlet during his tenure as associate professor at a university in Texas.
“It was one of those unexpectedly beautiful moments,” Portbury says of the short’s lifespan beyond the class. Created with 10 students from his audio production class, he declares that a large portion of his student body received certificates affirming they had worked on an Emmy-winning film.
“That is an amazing thing to come out of university with as part of your resume,” he says warmly. “It was a lot of fun.”
Perhaps the greatest coup of Portbury’s career has been the surprise success of his directorial effort, The Hopeful, which he also produced, and which found its way onto 900 screens across the US in spite of many hurdles working against it.
“It’s kind of ridiculous for a film with that size,” he admits, particularly given its lack of star power. A historical epic set in the shadow of the War of 1812, Portbury explains, “it’s essentially the story of a couple of people that founded a religious movement in the northeast of the US. It’s super niche, right? It has all the hallmarks of getting no distribution at all, ever.”
Portbury’s intense passion for The Hopeful’s story saw him spend 23 weeks every other month in the US, by his own calculations, across 2023 searching for distributors. The substantial faith-based community in the US saw the modest Australian/Canadian production eventually hit the top 10 of the lucrative US box office.
“We just had a miracle run,” he says. “We had the right amount of post-production money at the right time, to be able to deliver a world-class film in post. That’s the kind of thing that most tightly-budgeted films tend to fail on, that final execution of standard, so we’re pretty lucky that we got to finish at the level that we did.”
Portbury’s adept navigation of the American film market continues in good health with the release of David on 3000+ US screens through Angel Studios.
His involvement in the film stems from the strength of his relationships. The film’s technical director is a friend of Portbury’s, and it was he who invited Portbury to South Africa after the film’s two directors voiced their need for another writer.
“It’s just one of those serendipitous things that happens in film,” he admits with some amazement. “This has been my experience over the last 18 years of doing this: very rarely have I ever gotten a job due to me handing in the CV. It’s always been through a relationship with somebody, or working with someone and then they recommend you to someone else.
“You end up getting these calls out of the blue,” he ponders. “You’re going along doing this thing and then a phone call comes along, and all of a sudden you’re on a $75 million animated feature which you never saw coming.”
David is in cinemas 18 December 2025. The Hopeful is available now on Digital
