David Michôd
Birthdate: Nov 30, 1972
Birthplace: Sydney, Australia
David Michôd is an acclaimed Australian director/writer/producer of movies with dark themes and intense conflict, typified by his strong feature debut as director/writer of the crime drama, Animal Kingdom (2010), starring Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, Guy Pearce, Luke Ford and Jacki Weaver (nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar), and premiering at the Sundance Film Festival before returning a worldwide gross of $7.2 million including a U.S. gross of over $1 million via distributor Sony Pictures Classics. David Michôd had his name as screenwriter only on another 2010 Sundance premiere—director/co-writer/producer Spencer Susser’s comedy drama, Hesher (2010), starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rainn Wilson, Natalie Portman (who also produced), and Piper Laurie, and released to little business by Wrekin Hill Entertainment.
Michôd was director/screenwriter/co-story writer (with Joel Edgerton)/producer of the Australian Western, The Rover (2014), starring Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson, with Scoot McNairy, David Field, Anthony Hayes, Gillian Jones and Susan Prior, premiering out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival and released in the U.S. by A24 (U.S.)/Roadshow Films (Australia/New Zealand) to a $3.2 million global theatrical gross. Michôd was director/writer of the satire set during the U.S. war in Afghanistan, War Machine (2017), based on Michael Hastins’ 2012 non-fiction book, The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan, and starring and produced by Brad Pitt, with Anthony Michael Hall, Anthony Hayes, Topher Grace, Will Poulter, Tilda Swinton and Ben Kingsley, and released by Netflix.
David Michôd once again collaborated with Joel Edgerton as co-writer—as well as a cast member—and was director/co-writer/producer of The King (2019), the feature adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Henriad” trilogy of plays (Henry IV, Part 1/Henry IV, Part 2/Henry V) starring Timothée Chalamet, Sean Harris, Lily-Rose Depp, Robert Pattinson, and Ben Mendelsohn, and launching at the Venice Film Festival before its Netflix release.
David Michôd returned to dramatizing true life stories as director/co-writer/producer of the boxing biopic, Christy (2025), with co-writer Mirrah Foulkes and story writer Katherine Fugate, starring Sydney Sweeney (who also was a lead producer), with a supporting cast including Ben Foster, Merritt Wever, Katy O’Brian and Ethan Embry, and which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival before a release by Black Bear Pictures.
David Michôd turned to comedy as director/writer and co-story writer (again with Joel Edgerton) of the stoner caper, Wizards (date to be announced), starring Pete Davidson and Franz Rogowski, with Naomi Scott, Sean Harris, and Orlando Bloom, produced by Brad Pitt’s and Dede Gardner’s Plan B Entertainment and See-Saw Films, and released by A24.
Personal life
David Michôd was born and raised in Sydney, Australia, by his parents. Michôd attended and graduated from Sydney Grammar School, and later studied art at the University of Melbourne. Michôd studied filmmaking in Melbourne after working as a staffer in the Victorian Department of Education. David Michôd is married to actor/director/writer Mirrah Foulkes.
Facts About David Michôd
Short Work: David Michôd wrote and/or directed ten short films between 2000 (Noise) and 2011 (Bear), and most notably Netherland Dwarf (2008), Solo (2008), and Inside the Square (2009), some of them co-written by his frequent writing partner, the actor/director/writer Joel Edgerton.
Best Movie List: Michôd contributed to Sight & Sound magazine’s 20212 poll a list of his picks for the best movies of all time. They were in alphabetical order: Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979), Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979), Andrew Dominik’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), Michael Haneke’s Funny Games (1997), Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia (1999), Paddy Chayefsky’s Network (1976), Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard (1950), Terence Malick’s The Thin Red Line (1999), Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976) and Bela Tarr’s Werckmeister Harmonies (2000).
Collective Member: David Michôd is a member of the Australian-based BlueTongue Films collective, which includes Joel Edgerton, Nash Edgerton, Spencer Susser, Mirrah Foulkes, and Kieran Darcy-Smith.
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