Robert Scott Hicks was born on March 4, 1953 in Uganda. He is an Academy Award nominated film director from South Australia.

After graduating with honors, Hicks spent several years working on film crews for various Australian productions, including Bruce Beresford's early heist movie Money Movers (1978), as well as creating his own short films. During the 1980s, Hicks made several low-budget Australian-fiction feature films, directing the teen road movie Freedom (1982), and writing and directing Call Me Mr. Brown (1986), as well as the youth-oriented Sebastian and the Sparrow (1988). Hicks found more success, however, with his documentaries, earning a Peabody for his inside look at the Chinese Army, The Great Wall of Iron (1989), and an Emmy for Submarines: Sharks of Steel (1994).

Hicks finally reached the international movie audience when his long-gestating Shine debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 1996. Based on the eventful life of troubled concert pianist David Helfgott, and a labor of love for Hicks since he first saw Helfgott perform in 1986, Shine's exuberant visual style, uplifting story, and sterling performances by Geoffrey Rush and Noah Taylor as the tortured musician, and Armin Mueller-Stahl as his autocratic father, sparked a bidding war at Sundance.

A box-office hit, Shine sealed Hicks' reputation when it earned seven Oscar nominations, including directing and writing nods for Hicks, and Rush won for Best Actor. Though he resisted relocating to Hollywood, Hicks subsequently nabbed the plum assignment of directing the screen version of the best-selling novel Snow Falling on Cedars (1999). Other than kudos for its lush cinematography, however, Snow Falling on Cedars failed to win over critics and audiences. Hicks' less than felicitous relationship with Hollywood movie-making continued with his adaptation of a Stephen King story, Hearts in Atlantis (2001).

He also directed 2007’s romance comedy No Reservations, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart.

Scott lives with his wife, producer Kerry Heysen and their two sons, Scott and Jethro in Adelaide, South Australia.

Credits by Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Director

• The Boys Are Back in Town (2008)
• Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts (2007)
• No Reservations (2007)
• I'm Only Looking: The Best of INXS (2004) (V) (video "Don't Change")
• Hearts in Atlantis (2001)
• Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)
• Shine (1996)
• The Space Shuttle (1994) (TV)
• Submarines: Sharks of Steel (1993)
• Call Me Mr. Brown (1990)
• Sebastian and the Sparrow (1988)
• The INXS: Swing and Other Stories (1985) (V)
• Freedom (1982)
• Down the Wind (1975)

Awards

• Australian Film Institute Award Best Director "Shine" 1996
• Emmy Outstanding Individual Achievement in Craft, Directors "Submarines: Sharks of Steel: The Hidden Threat" 1993 - 94