Ben Lawrence

Director |Writer

Ben Lawrence is an internationally award-winning filmmaker, working across short film, documentary series, feature and feature documentary. Ben’s films have screened at festivals including Toronto, Busan, Sydney, Edinburgh, Clermont-Ferrand, Sheffield, DocNYC, Melbourne, Palm Springs, Sitges and Sao Paulo.

Most recently, Ben returned to work as Series Director on the next installment of The Jury for SBS, after receiving a nomination in Best Direction in Nonfiction Television at the 2025 AACTA Awards, shared with Tosca Looby, for season one. In 2025, The People vs Robodebt (CJZ, 2025) was released to widespread praise and won Ben the AACTA’s for Best Direction in Nonfiction Television, with the series also taking home Best Documentary or Factual Program.

Ben’s debut narrative film Hearts and Bones (Night Kitchen Productions, 2019), which he co-wrote with Beatrix Christian, has been critically lauded since its world premiere at the 2019 Sydney Film Festival, where it played in Official Competition. Ben received the 2020 Australian Director’s Guild (ADG) Award for Best Direction in a Feature Film (Budget 1M +) and was also nominated for the 2020 Australian Writer’s Guild Awards (AWGIE) in the Best Original Feature Film category with Bea. Hearts and Bones had its international premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, where the screenings were followed by standing ovations. The film tells the story of a friendship between a war photographer (Hugo Weaving) and a South Sudanese refugee (Andrew Luri), who are connected by a photograph that threatens to destroy them both.

His critically acclaimed debut feature documentary, Ghosthunter (Madman Entertainment), has screened at multiple festivals around the world, and earned Ben an AWGIE Award for Best Writing for a Documentary Feature; an AACTA Award nomination for Best Feature-Length Documentary; winning the Sydney Film Festival Best Australian Documentary Award in 2018 and a nomination for the esteemed Illuminate Award at Sheffield DocFest. It was released nationwide in Australia and New Zealand by Madman in September 2018. Ben has also, in association with Audible, released a five-part true-crime podcast inspired by the documentary; both the podcast and the documentary follow Jason King, a Western Sydney security guard and self-taught ghost hunter confronting a terrible family secret. Ben received an AWGIE Award nomination in the Audio Category for the adaptation.

Ben’s latest feature documentary, Ithaka (Shipton House, 2022), was nominated for the 2022 AACTA Award for Best Documentary, won the 2022 AWGIE for Best Documentary - Public Broadcast or Exhibition, and earned Ben a nomination for Best Direction in a Documentary Feature at the 2022 ADG Awards. It is a riveting documentary following Julian Assange from U.K.'s maximum security, Belmarsh Prison, as he appeals his extradition order to the U.S. The film opened both the Barcelona & Berlin Human Rights Film Festivals - where it won the Audience Award and screened in competition at Sydney, DocNYC, Sheffield and DocEdge Festival - where Ben was awarded Best International Director.

Ben has also directed for factual TV series, including Stuff The British Stole and the Four Corners series, Exposed: The Case of Kelli Lane. He is currently developing his own work, including a narrative series based on Ghosthunter, as well as continuously shooting various documentaries.

For enquiries regarding Ben please contact us via email or on (02) 9319 7199.