L – HerStory Gallery
Additional Information
Special Achievements
- Patricia Lovell is regarded as one of Australia's most successful film producers. She has also had a successful radio and television career.
- She joined the Australian Broadcasting Commission in the early 1950s (as Patricia Parr) and had a variety of behind-the-scenes jobs before becoming a performer in ABC children's broadcasting. In 1960, Patricia accepted one of her most fondly remembered roles as "Miss Pat" in the children's television programme Mr Squiggle and Friends (until 1975). For a decade from 1964 Lovell also appeared as a panelliston the daytime show, Beauty and the Beast. She also worked as an anchorwoman on the early morning television show Sydney Today from 1969-1975. It was during this time that she met then emerging filmmaker Peter Weir and began her career in film production.
- Patricia first produced Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), and then went on to produce Break of Day (1976), Summerfield (1977), Gallipoli (1981), Monkey Grip (1982) and The Perfectionist (1987). She also produced the documentaries Monster or Miracle? Sydney Opera House (1973) and Tosca: A Tale of Love and Torture (2000).
- Between 1996 and 2003 Lovell was head of Producing at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.
- Patricia Lovell is regarded as a pioneer for women in the film industry and, reflecting on the challenges that face women, has said "If a woman has talent, she'll get there. But she has to be willing to fight".
Additional Information
- In 1978 Pat Lovell was awarded the MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list for her services to film and television, and in 1980 she received the AM (Member of the Order of Australia) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for her services to the film industry. In 2004 she won the Australian Film Institute’s Raymond Longford Award, and she was a commissioner with the Australian Film Commission between 1977 and 1983.
- Between 1981 and 1983, while serving as a member of the National Library of Australia’s National Film Archive Advisory Committee, Lovell was a staunch advocate for what the future of such an archive should be. Lovell is the recipient of the NFSA's 2010 Ken G Hall Film Preservation Award for her three decades of involvement in, and advocacy of, the activities of the organisation; especially in her promoting the cause and needs of the organisation to politicians, film industry colleagues and the community at large.
