David Hannay (producer)

Australian film producer

The basics

Quick Facts

Intro

Australian film producer

Places

Australia

was

Film producer

Work field

Film, TV, Stage & Radio

Gender

Male

Birth

23 June 1939, New Zealand

Death

31 March 2014Yetholme, New South Wales (aged 74 years)

The details

Biography

David Hannay (23 June 1939 – 31 March 2014) was an Australian film producer. He worked with Greater Union and was an independent producer from 1977.
He was born in New Zealand. His first job in the industry was as an extras casting assistant on Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. Hannay produced his first feature film The Set in 1968 and then moved to television and became head of production for Gemini Productions from 1970–73 and 1975–76. In 1974 he was general manager for The Movie Company, a production subsidiary of Greater Union. From 1977 he was an independent producer and was involved in almost 50 film projects including cult classics Stone (1974) and The Man From Hong Kong (1975), Human Rights Australia Film Award winner Mapantsula (1998), Naomi Watts' first feature film Gross Misconduct (1993) and family film Hildegarde (2001) which starred Richard E. Grant and Tom Long.
Hannay was passionate about encouraging new talent as an educator and mentor and across his career worked with many writers, producers and directors on their first feature films. In November 2012 Hannay established the Bathurst Film Factory co-operative to foster the filmmaker talent in the area.
He was diagnosed with cancer in March 2012, and died in March 2014. An obituary described him as "one of the pioneers of the modern Australian film industry, a passionate cinephile, mentor and loyal friend."

Private life

Hannay was married to fellow New Zealander Kathleen Bourke and they produced one son (Antony Darton Hannay) before separating. Hannay then met Australian journalist Mary Moody and they had three children together (Miriam, Aaron and Ethan).

Hannay's brother Charles Hannah entered the film industry in 1984 after a successful career as an international corporate executive and restauranter.

David, Charles and sister Gillian are the children of theatre actress and writer Mary Stuart (Hannah) and theatre and radio actor-producer-director Norman Hannah.

Select credits

The Set (1968)
Kung Fu Killers (1974) – Co-producer
Stone (1974)
The Man from Hong Kong (1975)
Solo (1977)
Alison's Birthday (1981)
Emma's War (1986)
Death of a Soldier (1986)
Comrades (1986) – Associate Producer
Out of the Body (1988)
Kadaicha (1988)
Mapantsula (1988)
The Returning (1990)
Gross Misconduct (1993)
Shotgun Wedding (1993)
Dead Funny (1994) – Producer
Savage Play (1995) – Producer
Dags (1998) – Executive Producer
Cubbyhouse (2001)
Hildegarde (2001) – Producer
Mortal Fools (2008) – Executive Producer
Ten Dead Men (2008) – Executive Producer
The Argues: The Movie (2010) – Producer
Once Around the Sun (2012) – Executive Producer

Awards

1998 – Human Rights Australia Film Award for Mapantsula
1996 – Producers and Directors Guild of Australia Lifetime Achievement Award
1996 – Named Film Pioneer of the Year by The Society of Australian Cinema Pioneers 'for outstanding service to the Motion Picture Industry'
2002 – Screen Producers Association Maura Fay Award 'for service to the industry'
2007 – AFI Raymond Longford Award 'for lifetime achievement'
2008 – Australian Screen Sound Guild's Syd Butterworth Lifetime Achievement Award
2009 – Life membership of Screen Producers Association of Australia 'for long and outstanding service to the industry of Australian Screen Production'
2011 – National Film and Sound Archive's Ken G Hall Film Preservation Award 'for outstanding contribution to the art of the moving image and its preservation'