Jocelyn Moorhouse

Jocelyn Moorhouse (birthname: Jocelyn Denise Moorhouse) is an Australian producer-writer-director of films that dramatize personal relationships, and which have starred great actors ranging from Jason Robards, Jessica Lange, and Toni Collette to Alfre Woodard, Kate Winslet, Judy Davis, Kathy Bates and Anne Bancroft.

Moorhouse wrote and directed two short films during and after her studies at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, and then wrote and directed her debut feature, Proof (1991), starring Hugo Weaving, Genevieve Picot, and Russell Crowe, and winning Cannes film festival’s coveted Camera d’Or prize for best debut film, as well as best director and best screenplay awards from the Australian Academy of Cinema Arts and Television. Moorhouse was the producer of her husband and director-writer P.J. Hogan’s hit comedy-drama, Muriel’s Wedding (1994), starring Toni Collette, Bill Hunter, and Rachel Griffiths, grossing a celebratory $57.5 million (on a $9 million budget) after premiering at the Toronto film festival.

Moorhouse made her Hollywood debut directing Jane Anderson’s screenplay adaptation of Whitney Otto’s 1991 novel, How to Make an American Quilt (1995), with the extraordinary ensemble of Winona Ryder, Anne Bancroft, Ellen Burstyn, Kate Nelligan, Alfre Woodard, Maya Angelou, Kate Capshaw, Loren Dean, Samantha Mathis, Dermot Mulroney, Jean Simmons, Lois Smith, Rip Torn, and Mykelti Williamson, and which was backed by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and released by Universal Pictures to strong box office with a $41 million return.

Jocelyn Moorhouse next directed A Thousand Acres (1997), another major novel adaptation (by screenwriter Laura Jones) of Jane Smiley’s Pulitzer-winning novel version of Shakespeare’s King Lear, co-starring Michelle Pfieffer, Jessica Lange, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jason Robards, Colin Firth, Keith Carradine, Kevin Anderson, and Pat Hingle, and losing money for Disney/Touchstone Pictures ($8 million gross against $28 million costs).

Moorhouse was co-writer (with director P.J. Hogan) and producer of the American comedy, Unconditional Love (2002), co-starring Kathy Bates, Rupert Everett, Meredith Eaton, Peter Sarsgaard, Lynn Redgrave, Dan Aykroyd, and Jonathan Pryce, but which was delayed for U.S. release until it was premiered on premium cable (though theatrically released in the U.K.) and received extremely negative reviews.

Moorhouse was a producer on director-writer P.J. Hogan’s Australian comedy-drama, Mental (2012), co-starring Toni Collette, Anthony LaPaglia, Liev Schreiber, and Rebecca Gibney, and premiering at the Melbourne film festival before a $4.4 million release by Universal Pictures. Moorhouse’s first feature in 18 years as co-writer/director (with co-writer P.J. Hogan) arrived with the dark Australian comedy, The Dressmaker (2015), starring Kate Winslet, Judy Davis, Liam Hemsworth, and Hugo Weaving, premiering at the Toronto Film Festival before a theatrical release by Amazon Studios/Broad Green Pictures (in U.S.) and Universal Pictures International (ex-U.S.) for a profitable $25 million return.

Jocelyn Moorhouse had to wait another nine years for her fifth theatrical feature as director of the U.S.-made comedy, The Fabulous Four (2024), starring Susan Sarandon, Bette Midler, Megan Mullally, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Bruce Greenwood, and Michael Bolton, and released by Bleecker Street (in the U.S.) and Sierra/Affinity (ex-U.S.).