Timothy Spanos

'Timothy Spanos' (qv) was born in Upper Fern Tree Gully in Victoria and grew up in the near by suburb of Boronia where he lived for his first 23 years. He went to a performing arts school in Box Hill where he began writing and making short films including one about a woman who thought she was turning into Nana Mouskouri. He eventually graduated in Drama and Media. In the 1990's Spanos worked as a reporter on a music series for RNTV called Black & White, where he interviewed 90's euro pop dance acts. Upon his return to Australia, he enrolled in film school and secretly made over fifteen short films which screened in festivals and television throughout the world. In 2004, he wrote, directed and produced a film called "Prisoner Queen". Set in 1997, Prisoner Queen starred Jude Kuring as an actress battling leukemia and Tim Burns as her son who begins to believe he is living in various TV shows. The film was released in New Zealnad, Germany, France and Ireland. Prisoner Queen screened at The Academy Twin Cinema in Sydney and The ACMI cinemas in Melbourne. Spanos' second film "Nancy Nancy", a homage to B-Grade Trash Cinema, was a black comedy about Stockholm syndrome. The film was released in 10 states in the USA and won Best Comedy Feature Film at The Atlanta Film Festival. It was released on DVD in Australia in February 2012. In 2005, he gathered a company of actors together and began collaborating and making feature films with them. In 2007 he released "Moonlight & Magic" about two punk bandits who commence a crime spree in rural Victoria . It starred Spanos muse Tim Burns, Maxine Klibingaitis and Elspeth Ballantyne. The film was also awarded Best Comedy Feature at The Atlanta Film Festival, making Spanos a recipient of the same award two years in a row. Maxine Klibingaitis was awarded Best Supporting Actress for her role as a diabetic bandit at The Melbourne Underground Film Festival. Spanos's fourth and most commercially successful film, Boronia Boys, about two trash and treasure salesmen from the suburbs was released in Australia in 2011 through the Metro Cinemas and within two weeks became the highest grossing Australian independent film to screen there. Boronia Boys was listed in the Top 5 films screening in Melbourne for two weeks. Spanos was proclaimed by The Age newspaper as "the unsung hero of Australian Independent cinema".::anonymous