Ben Lewin(II)
- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Ben Lewin's career as a writer and director is spread across three
continents and includes award-winning documentaries, feature films, TV
movies, mini-series and episodic programs. Born in Poland in 1946, he
migrated to Australia with his family in 1949. As a young man, Lewin
showed great passion for photography and creative writing, and also
studied and practiced law. He left his work as a criminal barrister
when he was offered a scholarship to the National Film School in
England. After graduating, he joined BBC Television as a director on
the Nationwide program, followed by other documentary and current
affairs programs for Thames, Granada and Channel Four Television. His
breakthrough project as a writer/director was The Case of Cruelty to
Prawns, a comedy-drama that won the Best Television Film Award at the
prestigious Melbourne Film Festival.
Some of Ben's notable credits include the murder mystery feature
Georgia, starring Judy Davis, which won eight Australian Film Institute
nominations; the much-honored and multi-award winning The Dunera Boys
starring Bob Hoskins - the true story of 2,000 English Jews who were
mistakenly suspected as Nazi spies and transported to Australia in
1940; the award-winning Matter of Convenience, a tele-movie about
marriages of convenience with Jean-Pierre Cassel; and Plead Guilty, Get
a Bond, about a tribal aboriginal woman and her conflict with the
Australian legal system.
Ben Lewin is best known in the US as the writer and director of comedy
features; Paperback Romance, a love story about slightly damaged people
starring Anthony LaPaglia and Gia Carides, and the messianic farce The
Favor, the Watch and the Very Big Fish, starring Bob Hoskins, Jeff
Goldblum and Natasha Richardson. More recently, Ben Lewin brought his
distinctive mix of the preposterous and the perceptive to Hollywood
Gold, a personal documentary of his misadventures in the Beverly Hills
jewelry trade at Oscar time. His episodic television work includes the
season's highest-rated episode of Ally McBeal ("Let's Dance") and
Touched By An Angel, as well as a number of episodes of the most
popular drama series in Australia, Sea Change.
Lewin's most recent accomplishment is the award-winning feature film
The Sessions, a moving true-life story based on the sexual awakening of
Berkeley-based poet and journalist Mark O'Brien who spent most of his
life in an iron lung. Starring Oscar nominees John Hawkes and William
H. Macy, and Oscar winner Helen Hunt, the film won numerous
international awards including Audience Awards at the 2012 Sundance,
San Sebastian and Mill Valley Film Festivals, as well as a 2012
Sundance Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Cast. In 2013, the lead cast
of The Sessions garnered two Independent Spirit Awards for Best Male
Lead and Best Supporting Actress, as well as two Golden Globe
nominations in the same categories and an Academy Award nomination for
Best Supporting Actress.
An Australian at heart, Ben has been living and working in California
since 1994 and is in development on a number of feature film and
television projects. His portfolio and interests are diverse, and
include one wife (producer Judi Levine) and three children.
continents and includes award-winning documentaries, feature films, TV
movies, mini-series and episodic programs. Born in Poland in 1946, he
migrated to Australia with his family in 1949. As a young man, Lewin
showed great passion for photography and creative writing, and also
studied and practiced law. He left his work as a criminal barrister
when he was offered a scholarship to the National Film School in
England. After graduating, he joined BBC Television as a director on
the Nationwide program, followed by other documentary and current
affairs programs for Thames, Granada and Channel Four Television. His
breakthrough project as a writer/director was The Case of Cruelty to
Prawns, a comedy-drama that won the Best Television Film Award at the
prestigious Melbourne Film Festival.
Some of Ben's notable credits include the murder mystery feature
Georgia, starring Judy Davis, which won eight Australian Film Institute
nominations; the much-honored and multi-award winning The Dunera Boys
starring Bob Hoskins - the true story of 2,000 English Jews who were
mistakenly suspected as Nazi spies and transported to Australia in
1940; the award-winning Matter of Convenience, a tele-movie about
marriages of convenience with Jean-Pierre Cassel; and Plead Guilty, Get
a Bond, about a tribal aboriginal woman and her conflict with the
Australian legal system.
Ben Lewin is best known in the US as the writer and director of comedy
features; Paperback Romance, a love story about slightly damaged people
starring Anthony LaPaglia and Gia Carides, and the messianic farce The
Favor, the Watch and the Very Big Fish, starring Bob Hoskins, Jeff
Goldblum and Natasha Richardson. More recently, Ben Lewin brought his
distinctive mix of the preposterous and the perceptive to Hollywood
Gold, a personal documentary of his misadventures in the Beverly Hills
jewelry trade at Oscar time. His episodic television work includes the
season's highest-rated episode of Ally McBeal ("Let's Dance") and
Touched By An Angel, as well as a number of episodes of the most
popular drama series in Australia, Sea Change.
Lewin's most recent accomplishment is the award-winning feature film
The Sessions, a moving true-life story based on the sexual awakening of
Berkeley-based poet and journalist Mark O'Brien who spent most of his
life in an iron lung. Starring Oscar nominees John Hawkes and William
H. Macy, and Oscar winner Helen Hunt, the film won numerous
international awards including Audience Awards at the 2012 Sundance,
San Sebastian and Mill Valley Film Festivals, as well as a 2012
Sundance Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Cast. In 2013, the lead cast
of The Sessions garnered two Independent Spirit Awards for Best Male
Lead and Best Supporting Actress, as well as two Golden Globe
nominations in the same categories and an Academy Award nomination for
Best Supporting Actress.
An Australian at heart, Ben has been living and working in California
since 1994 and is in development on a number of feature film and
television projects. His portfolio and interests are diverse, and
include one wife (producer Judi Levine) and three children.