Film producer, director, editor, and arts administrator.
Regarded as one of the pioneers of the 1970s Australian film industry renaissance, Tony Buckley began his career as a laboratory assistant and later as a film editor at Cinesound under the direction of Ken G. Hall. During the 1960s, Buckley edited many notable feature films, including Michael Powell's Age of Consent (1969), Ted Kotcheff's Wake in Fright (1971), and Rudolf Nureyev's Don Quixote (1973). As a documentary filmmaker, his film Forgotten Cinema (1967) was pivotal in rekindling public interest in Australia's film history and a key influence on the Gorton Liberal government's support for the revival of the Australian film industry in the late 1960s. He independently produced and directed a film on the life of photographer Frank Hurley (Snow, Sand, and Savages) and soon afterwards worked as a producer for Film Australia, where he became Acting Head of Production. During this period, Buckley produced the highly praised The Fifth Facade (the official film on the Sydney Opera House), with Joern Utzon and Sam Wannamaker, and A Steam Train Passes (1974). He independently produced Palace of Dreams, a film about Sydney's State Theatre, and completed the eleven-part documentary series Man on the Rim for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Buckley began his feature filmmaking career with the internationally acclaimed Caddie (1976), which won fourteen awards, including the San Sebastian Jury Prize for Best Film. This was followed by The Irishman (1978); The Night, The Prowler (1978); The Killing of Angel Street (1981), which was loosely based on the Juanita Nielsen murder; and Kitty and the Bagman (1983). In the 1980s, Buckley produced Ray Lawrence's film adaptation of the Peter Carey novel Bliss (1985) and two TV mini-series based on the popular Ruth Park novels, The Harp In The South (1986) and its sequel Poor Man's Orange (1987), both of which were ratings winners. These were followed by the mini-series The Heroes (1988) for TVS Films UK.
In the 1990s, Buckley produced Mr Edmund (1990) for the Australian Children's Television Foundation and, in 1991, the sequel to Heroes (Heroes II: The Return). Later productions include the documentary Nazi Supergrass for director David Bradbury; Celluloid Heroes, Film Australia's four-part series celebrating the centenary of Australian cinema; Tracey Moffatt's first feature film Bedevil (1993); and George Whaley's feature On Our Selection. This was followed by Peter Fenton's documentary Les Darcy: The Maitland Wonder and (as co-producer) Robert Carter's first feature The Sugar Factory (1998). Since 2000, Buckley has produced the mini-series The Potato Factory (based on Bryce Courtenay's novel of the same name) and guest lectured at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School and the Boston University in Sydney.
Buckley was awarded the Order of Australia in 1997 for his services to the industry. In 2000, his efforts in and on behalf of the Australian film industry were again recognised when he was awarded the Ken G. Hall Award at the Screen Producers Association of Australia Conference. At that time, attention was drawn to his efforts in the 1970s and 1980s, when he had been a leading activist calling for the establishment of an autonomous National Film and Sound Archive. He was also very much involved in locating hundreds of important films and facilitating their transfer into the NFSA's care. Anthony Buckley has served as President of the Screen Production Association of Australia and Deputy Chairman of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. He has also been an Australian Film Commissioner and a member of the NSFA council.
