Alice Bell
{{short description|Australian screenwriter and director|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{distinguish|Alice Ball}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2016}}
{{Use Australian English|date=November 2016}}
Alice Bell is an Australian screenwriter and director.{{cite web| url = https://pro-labs.imdb.com/name/nm1912767/?ref_=sch_int| title = "Alice Bell - IMDbPro"}}. imdb.com. She has written for Australian TV dramas, including The Beautiful Lie, The Slap, Spirited, Rush and Puberty Blues. Most recently, Alice Bell collaborated with Nicole Kidman and Lulu Wang as writer and Executive Producer on Amazon Prime Video's Expats which was shot in Hong Kong over the pandemic, starring Nicole Kidman, Sarayu Blue, Ji-young Yoo, Brian Tee, Jack Huston and Ruby Ruiz. {{Cite web|url = http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s1756067.htm|title = Suburban Mayhem Interviews|access-date = 4 November 2015|website = At the Movies|publisher = ABC|last = Stratton|first = David|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160220110725/http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s1756067.htm|archive-date = 20 February 2016|url-status = dead}} She has directed music videos for artists including Silverchair, Toni Collette and the Finish, Jimmy Barnes, Little Birdy, and Missy Higgins. In 2007, she won the ARIA Award for Best Video, with co-director Paul Goldman, for Silverchair's "Straight Lines".
Early life
Bell grew up in the harbourside suburb of Balmain, Sydney.{{cite web| url = http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/tv-drama-the-beautiful-lie-transplants-tolstoy-to-australia/story-fn9n8gph-1227570001427?login=1| title = Reference at www.theaustralian.com.au}} After a series of "terrible" jobs,{{cite web| url = http://blogs.crikey.com.au/liticism/2013/09/30/nywf-series-an-interview-with-alice-bell/| title = "NYWF series: an interview with Alice Bell {{!}} Liticism"}}. crikey.com.au. including a stint as a dental nurse and role at an electroplating factory, she chose to forego formal training and began working in the film industry as production assistant. She made her way up to the role of production manager at Leah Churchill-Brown's company The Doll Collective.{{Cite web|title = NYWF series: an interview with Alice Bell –|url = http://blogs.crikey.com.au/liticism/2013/09/30/nywf-series-an-interview-with-alice-bell/|website = blogs.crikey.com.au|access-date = 2015-11-05}}
Career
In 2006, at age 27, Bell's first feature film, Suburban Mayhem, was invited to screen at the Cannes Film Festival.{{Cite news|url = http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/blood-in-the-burbs/story-e6frg8n6-1111112374904|title = Blood in the 'Burbs|date = 21 October 2006|work = The Australian|access-date = 4 November 2015}} The film had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival before receiving an international release. The screenplay won Bell the AWGIE Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2012, but the film was a critical failure. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a "rotten" rating of 20%, based on 5 reviews, with an average rating of 4/10.{{cite web |url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10006952-suburban_mayhem/ |title=SUBURBAN MAYHEM (2006) |author= |website=rottentomatoes.com |publisher=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=May 20, 2017 }} Bell had obsessively researched true crime to develop the story, and had attended murder trials to gain insight into crime within families. She completed the script in her early twenties.
Bell was one of the original writers on Channel Ten's police rescue drama Rush, with her first episode airing on 18 November 2008. She wrote episodes for series one to three.
In 2009, she completed a five-month intensive writers' workshop at the Binger Filmlab in Amsterdam. This led her to produce the screenplay Gin and Tonic,{{Cite web|url = http://www.binger.nl/archived_newsposts/18|title = Leon & Nicole - How Festivals Can Help Maximise and Augment a Binger Experience|date = 27 February 2011|access-date = 4 November 2015|website = Binger Filmlab|last = Curlewis|first = Matthew|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151122215604/http://www.binger.nl/archived_newsposts/18|archive-date = 22 November 2015|url-status = dead|df = dmy-all}} which as of 2015 was in its final stages of development.
Bell wrote the "Connie" episode of ABC's the award-winning series The Slap, an adaptation of Christos Tsiolkas' novel of the same name. The series' writing was called "quotidian and naturalistic" by The New York Times.{{Cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/arts/television/the-slap-on-directv.html|title = Drama at a Barbecue Leads Relationships to Fizzle|last = Hale|first = Mike|date = 14 February 2012|work = The New York Times|access-date = 4 November 2015}} Bell, along with her co-writers, won the 2012 AWGIE Award for Television Mini-Series (Adaptation). Bell received an AWGIE nomination the same year for Best Screenplay in a Television Series for her episode of Spirited, 'If You See Her Say Hello'.
In 2013, she was nominated for an AACTA Award with co-writer Tony McNamara for episode five of the Ten Network's Puberty Blues. The show won the AACTA Award for Best Television Drama Series the same year.
Bell is the co-creator, script producer and co-writer of 2015's "The Beautiful Lie" which airs on ABC. She wrote four of the drama's six episodes.{{Cite news|url = http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/tv-drama-the-beautiful-lie-transplants-tolstoy-to-australia/story-fn9n8gph-1227570001427?nk=5d1bcc87de64904c1ae1d6a075df7ba1-1446686634|title = TV Drama the Beautiful Lie Transplants Tolstoy to Australia|last = Neill|first = Rosemary|date = 17 October 2015|work = The Australian|access-date = 4 November 2015}}
Personal life
Bell lives in Sydney with her husband - actor, writer and director Leon Ford – together they have two daughters.{{Cite web|title = On the Couch with Alice Bell {{!}} Australian Arts Review|url = http://artsreview.com.au/on-the-couch-with-alice-bell/|website = artsreview.com.au|access-date = 2015-11-05}} In April 2017, Alice had a baby boy named Willem, brother to Francesca and Emilie.
Music videos
- Look Up - Toni Collette and the Finish (2006)
- Straight Lines - Silverchair (2007)
- Where I Stood - Missy Higgins (2007)
- After Dark - Little Birdy (2007)
- Out in the Blue - Jimmy Barnes (2008)
- Peachy - Missy Higgins
References
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Category:Australian women writers
Category:Australian television directors