Dame Fran Walsh, of Wellington, DNZM for services to film
Dame Fran Walsh is an Academy Award-winning screenwriter, film producer and musician.
Dame Fran Walsh has collaborated with her partner Sir Peter Jackson on all his films since ‘Meet the Feebles’ (1989), and was nominated for her first Oscar after co-writing ‘Heavenly Creatures’ (1994). She has been the co-screenwriter of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy, ‘King Kong’ (2005), ‘The Lovely Bones’ (2009), the three-film adaptation of ‘The Hobbit’, and most recently ‘Mortal Engines’ (2018). In 2004, she shared three Oscar wins for her work on the final episode of ‘The Lord of the Rings’, including Best Song, Best Picture, and Best Adapted Screenplay. She has received a further 24 award nominations and 30 wins from the Australian Film Institute, the BAFTAs, the Grammys, the Golden Globes, and the Writers Guild of America. Her work with Wingnut Films includes producing, script writing, musical composition, casting, and second-unit directing. She has also worked on several projects outside of her partnership with Sir Peter Jackson, as a script consultant and supervisor. With Sir Peter she researched and produced the documentary film ‘West of Memphis’, which brought about the release from prison of three teenagers from West Memphis, who had been wrongly convicted of murder under questionable evidence in 1994. Dame Fran was also involved in purchasing the site of BATS Theatre in Wellington in order to secure its future.