AustLit

Cris Jones was a Melbourne-based scriptwriter and director.

Jones wrote and directed three short films: The Heisenberg Principle (2001), Excursion (2003), and The Funk (2008).

The Heisenberg Principle, which was a Victorian College of Arts student film, placed third in the Berlin Interfilm Festival in 2002 (in the international competition).

Excursion, which was also produced at Victorian College of Arts, won awards at the Film Critics Circle of Australia, the Melbourne International Film Festival, and the Munich International Festival of Silm Schools, as well as placing second in the short film section of the SXSW Film Festival.

The Funk was produced by Melodrama Pictures, responsible for such films as Oscar-winning Harvie Krumpet. Shot entirely on digital stills and then painstakingly animated over a year, The Funk won awards at the St Kilda Film Fesitval and the Montecatini Filmvideo International Short Film Festival, and was nominated for the Sydney Film Festival's Yoram Gross Award for best animated film.

In 2016, Jones made his feature-film debut with The Death and Life of Otto Bloom, the story of a man who experiences time in reverse, moving backwards through his life and remembering the future. It opened the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2016.

Jones died suddenly in September 2016, aged 37.