David Lister is a renowned South African-born Australian film and television director, lecturer, and fine artist. He grew up on a farm in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa.
After studying painting and sculpture at art school in Pretoria, he worked at the Performing Arts Council Transvaal (PACT) for four and a half years, where he was involved in 40 opera, ballet, and drama productions.
Lister designed the sets for "Vrydag" and the popular Afrikaans play "Die Drie Van Der Walts" at the age of 22. He also supplemented his income by painting and undertaking commissions, with his paintings in private collections in South Africa, Namibia, Australia, the UK, and the US.
He later worked as a documentary film cameraman at SABC TV before leaving South Africa to study in the UK. Lister graduated with first-class honours from The London Film School in 1974 and returned to South Africa to work as a director in the film and television industry.
Throughout his 45-year career, Lister has directed 16 cinema and telefeatures, 13 television drama series totaling 138 episodes, a 52-part puppet series, and 63 documentaries, commercials, and corporate videos.
He has worked at The Media Workshop in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, lecturing film and television production students and mentoring interns on a ground-breaking project. Lister was also the film directing mentor and supervising director for a project overseeing the shooting of training project dramas.
In 2015, he established AFDA (The South African School of Motion Picture and Live Performance) in Port Elizabeth, where he was employed as Head of Film School and lecturer in directing and production design.
Lister's films encompass a variety of genres, and he is considered one of the most experienced filmmaking lecturers and feature film and television drama directors in South Africa. His critically acclaimed feature films and television drama series have won him 10 directing awards and numerous actors and technicians have garnered awards for their work under his direction.
Lister has directed memorable documentaries, television dramas, and feature films, including "The Forgotten Children", "The High Cost Of Dying", "The Health Business", and iconic sports documentaries. He created and directed the popular "Video 2" and "What's Happening?" SABC TV series for teenagers.
His productions have been widely distributed internationally, appearing on SABC TV, Mnet, Etv, BBC TV, ITV, Disney, Fox, HBO, NBC, RTL2, and Sky. Eight of his films have been released theatrically in the US, UK, Ireland, and South Africa.
Lister has been nominated for 13 directing awards, winning six Artes and two Star Tonight! directing awards. He has also won a Fespaco jury directing award and a finalist award at the New York Film and TV festival.
His two Leon Schuster feature film comedies, "Oh Shucks, Here Comes Untag!" and "Panic Mechanic", broke South African cinema box office records. Lister permanently moved to Australia in 2016.
