Photo credit: Jim Schembri
David Caesar graduated AFTRS in 1987, his final year film Shoppingtown won best film in the general category at the Sydney Film Fest in 1987 and continues to be used in film courses to this day. Living Room won best documentary at the Melbourne Film Fest and St Kilda Film Fest in 1988. The documentary Bodywork had a successful theatrical run in addition to winning best documentary at Melbourne Film Fest and an Atom Award in 1990 and received rave reviews in both Australia and the UK.
In 1992 his feature Greenkeeping was nominated for best screenplay in the AFI awards as well as being screened at more than ten international film festivals. In 1994 his documentary Fences won the Rouben Mamoulion Award at the Sydney Film Festival. The 1995 documentary Carcrash had a successful theatrical run and was a finalist for Best Screenplay at the NSW Premier’s awards. His 1996 feature Idiot Box was a finalist at the AFI awards and the NSW Premier’s Awards as well as being critically acclaimed in Australia and the UK.
David has directed many hours of television including Flying Doctors, G.P., Halifax F.P., Wildside, Water Rats, Cops, Rush, Rescue Special Ops, RAN, Underbelly (Razor / Squizzy / Badness), and Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. On Dangerous and Power Games: The Packer Murdoch Story he had both writing and directing credits.
David’s feature film Mullet, made in 2000, had a very successful theatrical run, was nominated for AFI awards and won Australian Critics’ Circle award for Best Original Acreenplay and was a finalist in the NSW and Queensland Premier’s awards. It travelled to festivals all over the world and was in competition at Shanghai winning best direction. Dirty Deeds was nominated for Best Screenplay at the AFIs and the Critics’ Circle, it premiered at Toronto Film Fest in 2002 before going on to many other festivals. It was the most successful local film released theatrically in 2002. David’s screenplay Prime Mover was selected for the 2004 Aurora program and his script won the 2008 Queensland’s Premier Literary award for Best Australian Screenplay. His most recent work includes the Matchbox produced feature Nowhere Boys: The Book of Shadows an episode of their series Hyde and Seek for Channel Nine and Love Child for Playmaker Media. In 2017 he completed the series Dead Lucky starring Rachel Griffiths for SBS / Subtext Pictures which has sold to Sundance TV for their subscription streaming service Sundance Now. David’s latest engagement has been with John and Dan Edwards’ Roadshow Rough Diamond production Les Norton for the ABC based on the Robert G Barrett novels.