Sue Milliken began her career in film at the ABC in the late 1960’s. After working as a continuity girl on ABC drama productions and later freelancing as continuity and production manager on productions such as Skippy and The Picture Show Man, she began producing in the late 1970’s with Tom Jeffrey. Together they produced Weekend of Shadows (1977), The Odd Angry Shot (1978) and Fighting Back (1981).
In 1985 she produced Bruce Beresford’s The Fringe Dwellers, Australia’s official entry at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival. In 1990/91 she worked again with Bruce Beresford, as Australian producer of Black Robe, the first official Australia/Canada feature film co-production. Black Robe was nominated for ten AFI Awards and won Best Film, Best Director and several other major awards at the Canadian Genies.
In 1994 Sue produced the feature film Sirens with UK co-producer Sarah Radclyffe. Sirens starred Sam Neill, Elle Macpherson, Portia di Rossi and Hugh Grant and was directed by John Duigan. In 1995 she produced Dating The Enemy starring Claudia Karvan and Guy Pearce, directed by Megan Simpson Huberman. In 1996 with Greg Coote she produced Paradise Road starring Cate Blanchett and Glenn Close, directed by Bruce Beresford. In 1999 she produced the Imax documentary Sydney Story of a City and in 2001 the television production My Brother Jack, directed by Ken Cameron and winner of Best Mini Series at the 2002 AFI Awards. She was producer or executive producer for three series (sixty six episodes) of the US Sci-Fi TV series Farscape for the Jim Henson Company. In 2006 she produced the short drama Crocodile Dreaming starring David Gulpilil, directed by Darlene Johnson. In 2014 she produced the documentary The Redfern Story with director Darlene Johnson, for ABC TV.
In 2017 with Allanah Zitserman she produced Ladies In Black directed by Bruce Beresford, for which she co-wrote the screenplay with Beresford. Ladies in Black was nominated for ten AACTA awards including Best Film and Best Adapted Screenplay.
From 1980 to 2009 Sue represented the completion guarantor Film Finances in Australia. Film Finances is the world’s leading completion guarantor and during this time Film Finances successfully delivered over two billion dollars’ worth of Australian feature films and television productions.
Sue is a former Chair of the Australian Film Commission, and she served for five years on the board of Screen West and for five years as a member of the Film and Literature Censorship Board of Review. She is a past President of Screen Producers Australia (SPA) and is a life member of the association. She is a recipient of the Australian Film Institute’s Raymond Longford Award (now the Longford Lyell award). In 2013 she served as National President of the Cinema Pioneers’ Association. In 2016 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Australian International Movie Convention and in 2018 the Chauvel Award from the Gold Coast Film Festival. She is a recipient of the Centenary Medal and the Order of Australia (AO) for service to the film industry.
Sue has had four books published – a memoir, Selective Memory, about life in the Australian fllm industry, a book of correspondence with director Bruce Beresford, There’s A Fax From Bruce, a book about dogs, Dogs in the City, and in 2019 with producer Andrena Finlay a book about producing, Producing for the Screen.
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