David Lowery is an acclaimed writer-director of art house movies such as and , who also has a foot in the Hollywood mainstream with and the forthcoming series . But he remembers full well how it feels to be a novice filmmaker struggling to make ends meet, and the huge difference a film festival prize can make. And that, he says, is why he snatched up the invitation to come to Australia and serve as a judge for the Melbourne International Film Festival’s (MIFF) Bright Horizons competition, which offers a cash prize of $140,000 – one of the richest on the planet – for the winning director.
“I was living in my car for a period in 2007, 2008 in Texas,” the 43-year-old recalls. “I was working on lots of other people’s movies, travelling around, helping friends out. But in between, I didn’t have my own place, and I would just sleep in my car near the airport.
“It was a rough period. And then I made my first feature, which was set in an abandoned house, so I would just live in that abandoned house while we were shooting. There was no heating and it was the middle of winter, but it was complete luxury by comparison.
” That film, , won him a handful of awards, and the cash that came with them was a lifesaver. “It allowed me to persevere, not just as an artist, but as a human being,” he says. Lowery and his fellow jurors – Ivan Sen (creator of the franchise), costume designer Deborah L.
Scott (an Oscar winner for ), Indonesian producer Yulia Evina Bhara, and ac.