‘Speed and confidence’: Why this Hollywood director says getting older offers a creative edge

At 76, Phillip Noyce is as busy as ever. The Australian director of Dead Calm, Patriot Games and Rabbit Proof Fence, who has just shot the Viola Davis thriller Ally Clark in the US, thinks there is an advantage in getting older as a filmmaker.“How a director puts together scenes and builds a 100-minute feature length story is a complex equation, involving both experience and speculation,” he says. “I can pretty much use my experience to shorten the speculation, often finishing a day’s shoot a couple of hours early and shortening my – and the crews’ – energy drain. So with age comes speed and confidence.”Writer-director Clare Pickering: Let’s shine a light on people who’ve been feeling invisible for such a long time.” PENNY STEPHENSNoyce has no plans to stop any time soon.“I’ve only had one job since I was 18,” he says. “I know no other daily ritual than contemplating how to tell the next story. I live in the worlds of my characters.”Film now has many successful directors working well into their seventies and eighties, including Kathryn Bigelow, 74, Nancy Meyers, 76, Catherine Breillat, 78, Steven Spielberg, 79, George Miller, 81, Martin Scorsese, 83, and Bruce Beresford, 85.At 88, Ridley Scott has the sci-fi film The Dog Stars in cinemas any minute now; Clint Eastwood was 93 when he directed his last film, the 2024 legal thriller Juror #2, before retiring.Despite these remarkable careers, it’s fair to say that youth is a venerated when it comes to breaking into filmmaking.“With age comes speed and confidence,” says filmmaker Phillip Noyce.Just look at all the chatter around the two young Americans who directed this year’s horror hits Obsession and Backrooms – Curry Barker, 26, and Kane Parsons, 21.“The great Gen Z genre land grab is in full swing,” The Hollywood Reporter declared. “Hollywood studios have been throwing millions at Internet-fluent horror filmmakers and online-native IP in a battle for the dollars, eyeballs and hearts (in that order) of Gen Z viewers.”Where does that leave aspiring filmmakers who have yet to make it – or anyone switching careers – in their thirties or forties? Is there any hope once they reach 50 or even 60?Melbourne actor turned writer-director Clare Pickering is determined to show there is. She has launched a short film festival, Late Bloomers Fest, to give “a voice and visibility to creatives, cast and crew over the age of 50”.Entries have opened, with the best films – up to 10 minutes long – screening in Melbourne on December 6.“We need to start to appreciate our elders – their wisdom and experience,” she says. “We want stories from people who’ve actually lived a life. Let’s shine a light on people who’ve been feeling invisible for such a long time.”Pickering, 57, recognises that emerging filmmakers in their twenties have an extraordinary ability to learn new technology quickly and a willingness to put their lives on social media.Curry Barker’s horror hit Obsession.Focus Features via AP“They bring that energy and that ability to just create content at a rate that just blows my mind,” she says. “But there are so many older people who are achieving incredible things, not just in the acting industry but in life in general. We live a much longer, healthier life than we ever used to.“It’s time to break those stereotypes of what a grandmother or a grandfather looks like. Or a person in their seventies or eighties or nineties.”Having started as an actor then moved into writing and directing, Pickering recognises that life experience is beneficial when it comes to surviving in a hard industry.“You learn resilience and not to take yourself so seriously,” she says. “I was a very earnest actor when I graduated from drama school. Now I’ve learnt that if I don’t get a role, it’s not about me or my performance. It’s just I wasn’t right for the character.”Longtime Australian producer Julia Overton, who had The Piano Tuner screening in the documentary competition at Sydney Film Festival this year, can see value in Late Bloomers Fest.Producer Julia Overton: “Directing, whether it’s for male or females, is seen as a younger person’s milieu.”Tom Zybrycki“People think the hardest thing is to get the money to make the film but the hardest thing is to actually get it out there,” she says. “Anything that can encourage people to go and see films on the big screen rather than waiting until they come to a screen in your living room is, in my view, a good idea.”Overton thinks it has always been hard to break into film but “it’s worth pursuing if that’s what your dream is”. She suspects it’s harder for directors, though, than producers.“Directing, whether it’s males or females, is seen as a younger person’s milieu,” she says. “But then you also see the opposite of that. You see the old white blokes in Hollywood, for instance. They rule the roost, the ones who’ve been canny and successful.”The advantage of being older is “you can cut through the bullshit quickly,” Overton says. “I’ve never thought of age for me as an inhibitor or an issue. I am who I am. I’ve got what I have to offer.“If people want it, that’s fine. If we don’t get on, that’s also fine. As long as you’ve got an inquiring mind, that’s what matters.”Director Kane Parsons (left) and Chiwetel Ejiofor on the set of Backrooms.Asterios MoutsokapasFor Phillip Noyce, Ally Clark makes it three films in five years. But there is still a downside to being in his seventies. “A director is under enormous pressure to prove they still have the creative juices to deliver a story that connects with their much younger audience,” he says.But with lots of possibilities for what he will direct next, there is an inspiration close at hand. Ally Clark’s writer-producer is Irwin Winkler (Rocky, Raging Bull, Goodfellas), who is 95.“He makes me feel young,” Noyce says.Must-see movies, interviews and all the latest from the world of film delivered to your inbox. Sign up for our Screening Room newsletter.From our partners