Jonathan Messer

Jonathan Messer (born 17 March 1973 in Melbourne) is an Australian director of theatre and film.

Career

Jonathan Messer works as an Australian director of film, and theatre. He directed the theatre production Tejas Verdes by Fermin Cabal in 2006 with Red Stitch Actors Theatre following the successful run of Vincent in Brixton by Nicholas Wright in 2005.

In 2005 Messer went to New York where he was invited to The Sloan Film Summit at the Tribeca Film Institute, where he screened his short film Joshua Tree starring Taylor Dayne. Jonathan also worked as the Assistant Director to Jim Sharman in the production of Three Furies at the Sydney Opera House. He has also directed and co-produced music videos for the bands Tiltmeter, Nokturnal and 67 Special.

Messer trained in Los Angeles for three years, and developed his film making skills and experience studying film direction at the American Film Institute He then worked as production assistant for the Kennedy-Marshall Company producing feature films such as Seabiscuit and The Bourne Supremacy. Before graduation from the MFA program in directing at the American Film Institute (AFI) in 2002, Messer underwent an internship at Killer Films in New York, working in pre-production on the Todd Haynes film Far From Heaven. Messer also received a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (Australia) and an Ian Potter Foundation Grant to pursue his MFA at the AFI.