Martin Butler

Martin Butler was born in England in 1952. He studied politics and economics at Oxford University, and afterwards worked for the manager of The Who. He migrated to Australia in 1981.

Butler has spent much of his career as a long-form current affairs television producer. He spent six years working on ABC Television's Four Corners, where he directed and produced several episodes, and served for 10 years as supervising or associate producer on Foreign Correspondent. Moving to SBS Television, he became supervising producer for Dateline. First Footprints is a four-part television series directed by Butler and Bentley Dean and narrated by Ernie Dingo, which premiered on 14 July 2013 on ABC Television. The series won the Walkley Documentary Award in 2013. In 2009, he co-directed Contact with Bentley Dean. The film tells the story of 20 Martu people who in 1964 became the last people in the Great Sandy Desert to have come into contact with Europeans. The film won many awards. Other films, made in collaboration with Bentley Dean, include Tanna (director, producer, and writer) (2015), and A Sense of Self (director, producer) (2016). For Tanna, he received a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at 89th Academy Awards.

His long term partner was the late journalist, television presenter and barrister Liz Jackson, with whom he had two children including Rose Jackson.

• 2013: Winner, Walkley Documentary Award in the Walkley Awards, for First Footprints • 2017: Winner, Walkley Documentary Award, for A Sense of Self; awarded to Liz Jackson, Martin Butler, Bentley Dean, and editor Tania Nehme • Award — Category — Recipient(s) — Result — Ref(s) • AACTA Awards — Best Film — Martin Butler, Bentley Dean and Carolyn Johnson • Best Direction — Martin Butler and Bentley Dean • Best Cinematography — Bentley Dean • Best Original Music Score — Antony Partos • Best Sound — James Ashton, Emma Bortignon and Martin Butler • Academy Awards — Best Foreign Language Film — Martin Butler and Bentley Dean • African-American Film Critics Association — Best Foreign Film — Tanna