Suzanne Baker
| Suzanne Baker | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1939 (age 77–78) England |
| Occupation | Producer, journalist, writer |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Alma mater | University of Sydney (BA (Hons), 2006) |
Suzanne Baker (born 1939) is an Australian film producer, print and television journalist, writer, historian and feminist. In 1977, she became the first Australian woman to win an Academy Award, winning for the animated short film Leisure in the category Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
Baker was born in England in 1939, while her Australian parents were visiting that country. Her parents were New Zealand-born writer and philologist Sidney J. Baker and his first wife Sally Baker (née Eena Dale Young), who separated when Baker was seven and divorced when she was eleven. She has a younger sister, Stephanie. When she was twelve, her mother married Lindsay Clinch, a newspaper editor. Her father also twice remarried.
Baker attended Sydney Girls High School but left school at age 15. When her stepfather was appointed to run the New York office of John Fairfax and Sons, Baker accompanied him and studied television production at New York University and worked for NBC. On return to Australia, she worked as a journalist for the ABC and was a producer for Bob Sanders' People. Her career then took her to the United Kingdom, where she worked for Thames TV, and then back to Australia in 1971 to work with the Sydney Morning Herald, where she modernised the women's section called Look!
In 1972, Baker was a founding member of the Media Women's Action Group.
In 1973, Baker joined Film Australia as its first female film producer. In this capacity, she was nominated for, and won, the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for the animated film Leisure, directed by Bruce Petty, at the 49th Academy Awards, presented in 1977. This made her the first Australian woman to win an Academy Award. She did not attend the ceremony, as Film Australia had a limited budget for overseas travel and she was not expected to win. The award was accepted on her behalf by the presenter, Marty Feldman.
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