Samuel Van Grinsven

Samuel Van Grinsven is a New Zealand-born Australian film director and screenwriter,^[1] whose debut feature film Sequin in a Blue Room was released in 2019.^[2]

A graduate of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, Van Grinsven made Sequin in a Blue Room as his graduation project. Centred on the coming-of-age of a gay teenager, the film was based on Van Grinsven's own experiences growing up queer in a conservative part of Australia.^[2] The film premiered in June 2019 at the 66th Sydney Film Festival, where it was the winner of the Audience Award for best Australian narrative feature.^[3] It was an AACTA Award nominee for Best Indie Film at the 9th AACTA Awards,^[4] and received commercial distribution in Australia in 2020 before going into wider international distribution in 2021.^[5]

His second feature film, Went Up the Hill, premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b Sean Slatter, "Samuel Van Grinsven’s ‘Went Up the Hill’ to join Rebel Wilson’s ‘The Deb’ at TIFF". IF Magazine, 23 July 2024.
^ ^a ^b James Kleinman, "Exclusive Interview: filmmaker Samuel Van Grinsven on his seductive queer coming-of-age tale Sequin in a Blue Room". The Queer Review, 11 April 2021.
^ Don Groves, "Samuel Van Grinsven’s ‘Sequin in a Blue Room’ sets international release". IF Magazine, 24 August 2020.
^ Tom Grater, "‘The Nightingale’, ‘Lambs Of God’ Lead 2019 Australian Academy Awards Nominations". Deadline Hollywood, 23 October 2019.
^ Peter DeBruge, "‘Sequin in a Blue Room’ Review: A Striking, Highly Stylized Plunge Into 21st-Century Gay Hookup Culture". Variety, 21 May 2021.