Graduate Diploma Film and Television: Sound Design, 2002
Christopher Nelius is a director, writer, composer and producer working across advertising, documentary and drama. After studying sound design at the school, Chris worked in story development at Working Title Films in Sydney before leaving to make his own documentaries.
One of them was The Sixth Element, a documentary about surfer Ross Clarke-Jones that was narrated by Dennis Hopper. Continuing his collaboration with Clarke-Jones, Chris also developed, wrote, co-directed and co-produced the series Storm Surfers for the Discovery Channel. Storm Surfers 3D, the feature version, won a prize at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2012 and the AACTA award for Best Feature Documentary.
He has also worked as field producer on two seasons of Bondi Rescue, created by fellow alumnus Ben Davies. Unstoppable, Chris’s short documentary about paraplegic FMX rider Andy Hensel, received a 2016 ADG nomination for Original Online Project. He also directed feature documentary Girls Can’t Surf, which screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2020.
AFTRS HIGHLIGHT
I remember every Monday morning us bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Grad Dip students watched a selected classic in the film theatre together. I’ll never forget the feeling amongst my classmates once we were 30 minutes deep into The Exorcist.
CAREER HIGHLIGHT
Making my most recent feature documentary Girls Can’t Surf, having it selected for the Tribeca Film Festival and seeing it play to thousands of movie-goers around Australia.