Russell Boyd

Russell Stewart Boyd,, ACS, ASC, is an Australian cinematographer, known as a key figure in the Australian New Wave of the 1970s, with his work on Picnic at Hanging Rock helping to shape the visual aesthetic of Australian cinema.
Boyd also had won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography in 2003 for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

Early life

Born into a rural Victorian family, he spent his early years on a small farm near Geelong, where his father worked as a wool classer.

Career

Boyd started his professional career at Cinesound in Melbourne as a general assistant. Seeking broader opportunities, he moved to Sydney in the mid-1960s, where he worked on documentaries and commercials at Supreme Studios.
Boyd's breakthrough into feature films came in 1973 with Between Wars, directed by Michael Thornhill, which earned him the Australian Cinematographers Society Milli Award for Australian Cinematographer of the Year.

Australian New Wave and collaboration with Peter Weir

Boyd played a pivotal role in the Australian New Wave cinema movement of the 1970s, which revitalized the country's film industry. His collaboration with director Peter Weir began in 1975 with Picnic at Hanging Rock, a film that is widely credited with putting Australian cinema on the world map. His work on the film also earned Boyd a BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography.
Boyd would later work on five other movies with Weir, like The Last Wave, Gallipoli, The Year of Living Dangerously, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, and The Way Back.

Hollywood career

In the early 1980s, Boyd expanded his career to Hollywood, working with Australian directors who had also made the transition. He served as cinematographer on Bruce Beresford's Tender Mercies and Gillian Armstrong's Mrs. Soffel.
He also worked on mainstream productions like Liar Liar and Dr. Dolittle.

Filmography

Feature film

Television

TV movies

Year	Title	Director
1976	Is There Anybody There?	Peter Maxwell
1977	The Alternative	Paul Eddey
1977	Mama's Gone A-Hunting	Peter Maxwell
1977	Benny Hill Down Under	Rod Kinnear Richard McCarthy
1978	Gone to Ground	Kevin James Dobson
1978	The Night Nurse	Igor Auzins
1978	Plunge Into Darkness	Peter Maxwell
1985	The Perfectionist	Chris Thomson

Documentary film

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1979	New South Wales Images	Himself	With John Seale

Awards and recognition

Boyd has been a member of the Australian Cinematographers Society since 1975, and was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 1998.
In 2004, he became a member of the American Society of Cinematographers.
In 1988, Boyd became the first of the only two cinematographers to receive the Australian Film Institute's Raymond Longford Award, recognizing his "unwavering commitment over many years to excellence in the film and television industries".
In 2021, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for "distinguished service to the visual arts as a cinematographer of Australian feature films and television productions" in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

Major awards

Australian awards

Australian Film Institute Awards
'''Australian Cinematographers Society'''