--- name: "Chris Noonan" canonical: "https://film.one/person/chris-noonan" fi1m_id: "chris-noonan" imdb_id: "nm0003088" tmdb_id: 58137 wikidata_id: "Q185846" roles: ["Director"] born: "14 November 1952" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "director" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-17T22:04:51.225491+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Chris Noonan ## Identity Chris Noonan - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/chris-noonan - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** chris-noonan - **IMDb ID:** nm0003088 - **TMDB ID:** 58137 - **Wikidata ID:** Q185846 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Noonan, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q185846, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003088/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/58137 Director. Born 14 November 1952 in Sydney, Australia. ## Details - **Work:** Director - **Born:** 14 November 1952, Sydney, Australia - **Academy Awards:** 2 Oscar nominations - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Noonan, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q185846, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003088/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/58137 ## Streaming the US now - **Disney+:** [*Babe*](https://film.one/film/babe.md) (88) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Chris Noonan > Chris Noonan gives a talking pig the courtesy of a proper personality. We rate *Babe* highly for its humour and patience with its animals, though his small feature output makes broader claims about his cinema difficult to support. The piglet in *Babe* (1995) is polite, and Chris Noonan takes that politeness seriously. With fellow screenwriter George Miller, he builds a farmyard in which the animals have been taught what to expect from one another, and do not readily reconsider. We were moved by the pig’s courtesy, because Noonan makes it a practical way of getting past those assumptions rather than merely a reason to find him adorable. There is plenty to laugh at, too. This is family filmmaking we recommend warmly, with enough interest in the other animals to keep the piglet’s goodness from becoming tiresome. Much of that success depends on allowing an animal time to respond. Editors Marcus D’Arcy and Jay Friedkin leave room between voices, so the conversations feel like encounters between creatures with separate ideas. The trained animals, animatronics and computer effects serve those exchanges without distracting us from how the creatures behave. Nigel Westlake’s music is less trusting, sometimes pressing an emotion the performances have already conveyed. The quieter passages give us more room to appreciate Noonan’s light touch. Before *Babe*, his first theatrical feature, Noonan had worked in documentaries and television, including the mini-series *Vietnam* (1987), which he helped write and direct. His second theatrical feature, *Miss Potter* (2006), came eleven years later and turned to the life of Beatrix Potter. Its attention to period detail and social conventions suggests an interest beyond animal stories. We would be cautious about calling two features a settled style, but the concern with expected behaviour is worth following. It would be easy to credit Noonan simply with keeping a complicated animal production under control. What matters more in *Babe* is how little of that work intrudes on the comedy: even creatures whose rules obstruct the pig have an upbringing that explains them. His patience with those characters is the quality we would most like to see carried into another feature. Start with *Babe*, and accept that the music occasionally insists on feelings the animals have already earned. ## Biography Chris Noonan is an Australian film and television director, screenwriter and producer. Born in Sydney in 1952, he studied in the inaugural directing course at the Australian Film Television and Radio School in 1973 alongside Gillian Armstrong and Phillip Noyce. He began his career with short films and documentaries, including the award-winning *Stepping Out* (1980), before directing television miniseries such as *The Cowra Breakout* (1984) and *Vietnam* (1987). Noonan made his feature directorial debut with *Babe* (1995), which he also co-wrote with George Miller. The film received seven Academy Award nominations, including for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. He later directed the biographical film *Miss Potter* (2006). Noonan served as President of the Australian Screen Directors' Association from 1987 to 1988 and as Chairman of the Australian Film Commission from 1990 to 1993. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *Babe* (1995), Fi1m 88, Screenplay, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/babe.md) ## Complete filmography (17) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Ticket Out* (2012), Executive Producer - *Bulls* (2008), Director, Writer - *Miss Potter* (2006), Director - *Australian Rules* (2002), Thanks - *Joy* (2000), Thanks - *Idiot Box* (1997), as Scary TV Crim - *Babe* (1995), Director, Screenplay — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/film/babe.md) - *Sweetie* (1989), Thanks - *Police State* (1989), Director - *The Riddle of the Stinson* (1988), Director - *Vietnam* (1987), Director, Story - *Vietnam* (1987), series, Director, Screenplay - *The Cowra Breakout* (1984), Director - *Stepping Out* (1980), Director, Producer - *Cass* (1978), Director, Story Developer - *Cyclone Tracy: Darwin, Christmas 1974* (1975), Director - *Satdee Nite* (1973), Producer's Assistant ## Gallery - ![Chris Noonan (2006)](https://film.one/media/person/86152/gallery-635cc281443b.jpg) Chris Noonan (2006) — S Pakhrin from DC, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Miss_Potter_Premiere_%2831%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Chris Noonan (2006)](https://film.one/media/person/86152/gallery-da6aa22fc9ff.jpg) Chris Noonan (2006) — S Pakhrin from DC, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Miss_Potter_Premiere_%28313250019%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Chris Noonan, the director (2006)](https://film.one/media/person/86152/gallery-702212446707.jpg) Chris Noonan, the director (2006) — S Pakhrin from DC, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d5/Miss_Potter_Premiere_%28313250608%29.jpg/1280px-Miss_Potter_Premiere_%28313250608%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 2 nominated - 1996: Best Director (nominated), for *Babe* - 1996: Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated), for *Babe* ### Other awards — 1 won - London Film Critics Circle Award for Film of the Year 1995: London Film Critics Circle Award for Film of the Year (won), for *Babe* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/chris-noonan