Simon Ozolins, ACS
Director of Photography
Simon Ozolins is a multi-award-winning cinematographer. Most recently, he completed serving as the set-up cinematographer on Fremantle and Netflix’s Heartbreak High reboot, which reunited him with director Gracie Otto. It also earned him a 2022 AACTA Award nomination for Best Cinematography in Television. His other television credits include the four-part television drama The Unusual Suspects (dir. Natalie Bailey), starring Miranda Otto, for SBS and Aquarius Films; the series was released in 2021 to critical and audience acclaim. Simon won a Gold ACS Award for Best Cinematography in a Serial TV and Comedy Series for his work on the series – it also received an AACTA Award nomination for Best Miniseries or Telefeature. Simon also shot the second series of The Other Guy (dir. Gracie Otto) for Stan and Aquarius Films; as well as Tomorrow, When the War Began (ABC, 2016) for Ambience Entertainment, for which he won a Gold ACS Award.
He won a Silver ACS Award for the feature film Crawlspace (dir. Justin Dix/ IFC Films, 2012). Simon’s short film credits include Skin (dir. Liselle Mei, 2015), The Wake (dir. Gemma Lee, 2009), Dugong (dir. Erin White, 2007) for which Simon won a Silver ACS Award, which screened at Sundance and received an AFI Award Nomination for Best Short Film. 62 Sleeps (2004) which was the first film he collaborated on with director Erin White won Best Short Film at both Sydney and Berlin Film Festivals.
Simon has shot a number of documentaries, including the AFI Award winning Inside the Firestorm (dir. Jacob Hickey/ ABC, 2010) and Immigration Nation (dir. Jacob Hickey/Ben Shackleford, 2011) for the ABC. He also shot the ABC satirical comedy At Home with Julia (dir. Erin White/ Quail Television, 2011).
Simon’s commercial credits extend to hundreds of major brands in both Australia and Internationally and he has won several Gold ACS Awards for his commercial work. He has a significant reputation in the music video industry, shooting the award winning ‘Walking on a Dream’ for Empire of the Sun winning the ARIA for best music video of the year and Billy Thorpe’s ‘Tangier’ for which he received the National Golden Tripod Award.
In 2023, Simon shot the noir comedy mystery Deadloch for Guesswork Television and Amazon Prime, and the feature Audrey (dir. Natalie Bailey) for Orange Entertainment. He was also the second unit cinematographer for the Robbie Williams biopic Better Man (dir. Michael Gracey) and shot season 2 of Fremantle and Netflix’s Heartbreak High.
Most recently, Simon wrapped up on Ladies in Black. The six-part drama series takes place in 1961, six months after the events of the original story. The series is directed by Gracie Otto and will be produced by Bunya Entertainment for the ABC. The show is set to be release in 2024.
For enquiries regarding Simon Ozolins please contact us via email or on (02) 9319 7199