SixtyFourSixty’s Brian Rosen and Su Armstrong will be jointly presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at new week’s Screen Producers Australia (SPA) Awards.
A husband and wife team, both Rosen and Armstrong’s careers in the screen industry span more than 40 years and cover the US, Europe and Australia.
Armstrong got her start working on Peter Weir’s 1977 mystery drama The Last Wave, followed by a raft of local films and culminating with a role as head of production at Kennedy Miller Mitchell.
She then headed to The States, where she worked at Disney’s Hollywood Pictures, where as VP of production she oversaw more than 50 films such as Crimson Tide, Dangerous Minds, The Santa Clause, Unstrung Heroes, and The Rock.
Armstrong was also an executive producer on Good Will Hunting, which won a raft of awards including the Oscars for Best Supporting Actor and Best Screenplay.
Born in Ireland and trained at Ardmore Studios, Rosen came to Australia in 1971, joining ABC TV before becoming a key independent film producer and managing director of Hoyts Productions in the 1980s.
Rosen also represented the completion guarantor company Film Finances Australia, and in 1983 pioneered the 10BA underwriting of projects with mini-series The Last Bastion’ through Rothschild Australia.
He began producing films in the US in 1991 with the animated film FernGully – The Last Rainforest. In 1994 he worked at Walt Disney Pictures as executive producer on Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach and from 1996 until 1999, he had a developing and producing deal with 20th Century Fox Family Entertainment.
Rosen would then takes the reins as CEO of the Film Finance Corporation of Australia from 2003 until 2008, where he was instrumental in bringing about the 2007 government film incentives of Producer Offset and merging of the federal film and TV agencies into Screen Australia.
From 2011-2014, Rosen was the president of the SPA council, and he has also served as the chair of Screen Tasmania.
In its announcement, SPA said: “Both Brian and Su’s careers, their relentless passion for storytelling, their work and mentorship of others, and their contributions to the Australian and global screen industry will be celebrated with much vigour at the SPA Awards next week.”
The SPA Awards will take place at The Star Gold Coast on May 5, the final evening of Screen Forever.