JILL BILCOCK

Jill Bilcock is probably the highest ranked Australian-born film identity you’ve never heard of. Yet with a fairy godfather like Fred Schepisi as her first employer, who asked what she would like to do in film – directing, producing or cinematography – Bilcock found editing her natural milieu.

She has edited a staggering number of household-name movies including Moulin Rouge!, Elizabeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Dish, Red Dog and The Dressmaker, and has been nominated for an Academy Award (Moulin Rouge!) and four BAFTAs – three times for Baz Luhrmann films.

Rated as one of the world’s go-to editors, Bilcock is so in demand she can choose the projects she works on. Yet her extraordinary career started so innocently with cutting her first five-minute film at her kitchen table in Melbourne.