Neil Armfield

Screen Director

Neil Armfield is a leading Australian director of theatre, opera and film. Alongside Rachel Healy, Neil was Artistic Director of Adelaide Festival between 2017 and 2022. Prior to that, Neil was the Artistic Director of Belvoir St Theatre for 17 years, which he also co-founded.

For screen, Neil directed and co-wrote the feature film Candy, starring Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish, which screened at over twenty international films festivals including In Competition at the Berlinale. Neil was awarded Best Adapted Screenplay at the AFI Awards and an AWGIE for Best Screenplay. Neil’s second feature film Holding The Man premiered at Sydney Film Festival in 2015. For television, Neil directed miniseries Edens Lost for ABC (AFI Award Best Director and Best Mini-Series), The Fisherman’s Wake (by Andrew Bovell), which won an ATOM Award for Best Original TV Production, and Coral Island (by Nick Enright).

As Artistic Director of Belvoir, and for other companies, Neil has directed over 50 productions including a focus on new and Indigenous writing, Shakespeare, David Hare and Patrick White.  Some highlights include; The Tempest, Hamlet, Up the Road, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Keating!, Toy Symphony, Dallas Winmar’s Aliwa, Angels in America, A Cheery Soul, Signal Driver and The Blind Giant is Dancing.

In 2022, Neil directed the world premiere of oratorio Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan at the Adelaide Festival and Brett Dean’s Hamlet at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. For the 2021 Adelaide Festival, Neil directed the Australian premiere of A German Life by Christopher Hampton, starring Robyn Nevin, as well as Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Festival Theatre.

In addition to his work in Australia, many of Neil’s productions have also played internationally. These include Cloudstreet (toured to London, Dublin, Zurich, New York), Hamlet (with Richard Roxburgh) Diary of a Madman (with Geoffrey Rush, toured to Moscow, St Petersburg, New York), Exit The King (Broadway), The Book of Everything (toured to New York), The Judas Kiss (toured Australia with Bille Brown, London, New York and Toronto with Rupert Everett), The Secret River (adapted by Andrew Bovell) and the world premiere of David Hare’s I’m Not Running for National Theatre in London.

Neil frequently collaborates with major opera companies, having directed productions at The Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Chicago Lyric Opera, Zurich Opera, Bregenz Festival, Washington National Opera, Opera Australia, Canadian Opera, Welsh National Opera, and Houston Grand Opera. In addition to classics by Mozart, Britten and Wagner, Neil has experience directing new operas including Frankie and The Eighth Wonder by Alan John, Love Burns by Graeme Koehne and Bliss and Hamlet by Brett Dean.

Over his distinguished career, Neil has received 2 AFI Awards, 12 Helpmann Awards and several Sydney Theatre, Victorian Green Room and Sydney Theatre Critics Circle Awards. He holds Honorary Doctorates from Sydney and NSW Universities, and in 2007 was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia.

As of March 2023.

For enquiries regarding Neil Armfield please contact us via email or on (02) 9319 7199