by FilmInk Staff
Forthcoming memoir from celebrated director looks at his ten-year struggle to create the Oscar-winning masterpiece.
Shine, the film, celebrates 30th anniversary with gala screening at Adelaide Film Festival
In 1996 Shine, a biographical drama based on the life of unconventional pianist David Helfgott, premiered at Sundance to a rapt audience. It would go on to gross almost $36 million at the box office worldwide. After decades of a career making films for smaller audiences, director Scott Hicks was suddenly catapulted into Hollywood recognition. Shine would receive seven Oscar nominations, including for Best Director, cementing Scott as a distinguished filmmaker. He writes,
‘At the age of forty-three I had, it seems, arrived. I had seen this happen to one or two others from afar but never imagined I would experience it myself. From this moment on my life would fall into two parts: before and after Shine.’
Thirty years later and Shine has become both an Australian and international classic, launching the film career of star Geoffrey Rush, and including dazzling performances by Noah Taylor and the supporting cast.
In Shine: Persistence of Vision, Scott takes readers behind the scenes during the decade he spent advocating for the making of a film nobody believed in. With clear-eyed prose, he recalls the subsequent period of navigating American distributors, some notoriously ferocious, and provides anecdotes that speak to both the glamour and the challenges of his new surroundings. Full of recognisable names and intriguing insights into the film industry, this is a book not just for lovers of the arts, but for anyone who has persisted with a vision despite all odds.
In honour of its thirty-year anniversary, Shine will be screened at the 2026 Adelaide Film Festival. The book will also be launched as part of the festival’s proceedings.
Blurb: Scott Hicks’ Shine took the world by storm, but few know the story behind the story; the determined director who refused to give up, the making of an unforgettable Australian film that might never have been seen.
Scott Hicks encountered eccentric pianist David Helfgott by chance. Intrigued by the man and his remarkable tale, he struggled against scepticism and rejection to realise his vision as a filmmaker.
A decade later Shine debuted at the Sundance Film Festival to popular and critical acclaim and sparked a fierce bidding war for distribution rights. The overwhelming response propelled Scott and his team to the Academy Awards, opened the door to an unimagined Hollywood career, and established Shine as a landmark in Australian filmmaking.
Author bio: Born in Uganda, raised in Kenya and England, Scott Hicks migrated to Australia in 1967 aged 14, completing his schooling in Adelaide. He discovered film at Flinders University, along with his wife Kerry Heysen, followed by a lifetime of filmmaking. His documentaries have taken him all over the world, and since Shine he has enjoyed directing movies in Hollywood as well as Australia. Maintaining their home base in Adelaide, he and Kerry raised their two sons Scott and Jett. Scott is also a proud grandpa to Artie, Kip and Isaac.
Photo: Jack Fenby
Courtesy of SA Style
The 30th anniversary screening of the Academy-Award winning film Shine – with brand new 4k digital remastered print – will be at the Adelaide Film Festival on Saturday October 24. Tickets here: https://www.adelaidefilmfestival.org/program/2026/shine
