Biography

Matthew Thorne (b. 1993, Adelaide, Kaurna Country) is an Australian filmmaker, photographer, and artist working across cinema, photography, and moving image installation. His works are developed through years of living and working alongside communities and their land. Often moving between fiction and nonfiction, they explore inheritance across family, history, and Country.

His early work included photography and additional unit direction on Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant, photography for Justin Kurzel’s True History of the Kelly Gang, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ Ghosteen. After his father died in 2017, he moved to the remote opal mining town of Andamooka (Kuyani / Kokatha Country), where he spent three years making The sand that ate the sea (2020) with the community.

In 2023, he co-created Marungka tjalatjunu (Dipped in black) with Yankunytjatjara artist Derik Lynch, documenting his return to remote Country for healing. The film received the Silver Bear Jury Prize and Teddy Award at Berlinale, and the Documentary Australia Award at the Sydney Film Festival.

In 2024, he co-created Extraction with Kuyani / Kokatha artist Donna Waters, exploring the impact of South Australia’s mining industry on her Country. The work premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival and Samstag Museum of Art.

Matthew has published two photo books, For My Father (2018) and Jingo was born in the slum (2021). His work has been exhibited at Deichtorhallen, Hamburg; the National Portrait Gallery, London; Théâtre National de Chaillot, Paris; National Portrait Gallery, Australia; and the Art Gallery of South Australia. In 2026, he was selected for Berlinale Talents and exhibited at Hamburg’s Triennial of Photography. He also received the Martin Kantor Portrait Prize in 2023.

His commissioned work includes photography for Susie Cave’s The Vampire’s Wife, alongside projects for Huawei, Audi, and Lexus with the Sydney Dance Company.

He currently has two feature films in development, Flatlands and One road in, One road out.