---
name: "David Michôd"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/david-michod"
fi1m_id: "david-michod"
imdb_id: "nm2391575"
tmdb_id: 114334
wikidata_id: "Q3018459"
roles: ["Director","Producer","Writer"]
born: "30 November 1972"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 6
average_fi1m_score: 71
average_as: "director"
average_over: 4
updated: "2026-10-07T05:01:33.042777+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."
---

# David Michôd

## Identity

David Michôd

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/david-michod
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** david-michod
- **IMDb ID:** nm2391575
- **TMDB ID:** 114334
- **Wikidata ID:** Q3018459
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Mich%C3%B4d, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3018459, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2391575/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/114334

Director and producer. Born 30 November 1972 in Sydney, Australia.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Producer, Writer
- **Born:** 30 November 1972, Sydney, Australia
- **Active:** 2010–present
- **Also known as:** Dave Michôd
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 6: 4 directing, 2 producing
- **Frequently works with:** [Joel Edgerton](https://film.one/person/joel-edgerton.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 71, as director, over 4 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 75 (3), 2020s 67 (3)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 71 to 67 across 4 titles
- **Score spread:** 2 at 80+, 0 at 60–79, 2 under 60
- **Genres:** Drama 4, History 2, Comedy 1, Crime 1, Sport 1, War 1
- **Screen time:** 6 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $3m across 2 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Mich%C3%B4d, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3018459, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2391575/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/114334

## Streaming the US now

- **HBO Max:** [*Enlightened*](https://film.one/tv/enlightened.md) (84), [*Christy*](https://film.one/film/christy.md) (58)
- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Animal Kingdom*](https://film.one/film/animal-kingdom.md) (84)
- **Netflix:** [*The King*](https://film.one/film/the-king.md) (58)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on David Michôd

> David Michôd makes family loyalty frightening through patient, exact direction of actors. We recommend *Animal Kingdom* with conviction, though its slower passages show that his control of performances is surer than his control of pace.

In *Animal Kingdom* (2010), a teenager enters a Melbourne criminal household and finds little reason to feel safe. David Michôd keeps Joshua ‘J’ Cody’s home life and the family’s criminal business uncomfortably close. He wrote the screenplay as well as directing, and understands how loyalty can become an obligation imposed on someone with little power to refuse it. This is where we rate him: he makes a familiar crime story frightening by taking its domestic arrangements seriously.

Jacki Weaver and Ben Mendelsohn give that approach its force, making family ties threatening without the need for constant action. We were unsettled by the scenes at home because their performances make belonging to this household feel dangerous. Michôd does not soften the gangsters to make them agreeable company, but he does allow their obligations to each other to matter. The violence has consequences beyond the immediate shock, which gives the quieter stretches something to sustain them.

That feature debut was followed by the lean dystopian Western *The Rover* (2014), then a change of scale with *War Machine* (2017), his first major studio-backed project. The latter is a satire starring Brad Pitt; *The King* (2019), co-written with Joel Edgerton and starring Timothée Chalamet, takes on Shakespeare’s Henry plays. These moves sit alongside his recurring interests in loyalty, self-interest and violence. They also make it difficult to file him simply as a crime director.

The patience that serves him in *Animal Kingdom* also causes its main problem: the second half lets the pace slacken. His preference for lean plots and little explanation gives us room to imagine the world, but it does not guarantee a brisk film. We stay with it for the actors, while wishing some of the slower passages were shorter. Start there for Weaver and Mendelsohn, provided an evening of uncomfortable family company appeals.

## Biography

David Michôd is an Australian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He was born on 30 November 1972 in Sydney. He attended Sydney Grammar School and the University of Melbourne before graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts Film and Television School. He is a co-founder of the production collective Blue-Tongue Films.

Michôd wrote and directed the feature film *Animal Kingdom* (2010). He also wrote and directed *The Rover* (2014), *War Machine* (2017) and *The King* (2019). His other screenwriting credits include *Hesher* (2010). He has directed episodes of television series including *Enlightened* (2011) and *Flesh and Bone* (2015).

He is the partner of actor and filmmaker Mirrah Foulkes.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, wikidata.org.*

## On Fi1m (6)

### Directed (4) — the average rests on these

- *Christy* (2025), Fi1m 58, Screenplay, Director, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/christy.md)
- *The King* (2019), Fi1m 58, Screenplay, Producer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/the-king.md)
- *Enlightened* (2011), Fi1m 84, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/enlightened.md)
- *Animal Kingdom* (2010), Fi1m 84, as Reporter — [page](https://film.one/film/animal-kingdom.md)

### Produced (2)

- *Tenzing* (2026), Fi1m 63, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/tenzing.md)
- *Wicker* (2026), Fi1m 80, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/wicker.md)

## Complete filmography (32)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Wicker* (2026), Producer — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/wicker.md)
- *Tenzing* (2026), Executive Producer — Fi1m 63, [page](https://film.one/film/tenzing.md)
- *Christy* (2025), Director, Producer, Screenplay — Fi1m 58, [page](https://film.one/film/christy.md)
- *Shark* (2021), Screenplay
- *The King* (2019), Director, Producer, Screenplay — Fi1m 58, [page](https://film.one/film/the-king.md)
- *Catch-22* (2019), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator
- *Mr Inbetween* (2018), series, as Peter
- *War Machine* (2017), Screenplay, Director
- *Animal Kingdom* (2016), series, Executive Producer
- *Flesh and Bone* (2015), series, Director
- *The Rover* (2014), Director, Story, Producer, Screenplay
- *Florence Has Left the Building* (2014), Thanks, Driver
- *The Captain* (2013), as Dead Body
- *Dumpy Goes to the Big Smoke* (2012), Producer
- *Enlightened* (2011), series, Director — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/tv/enlightened.md)
- *Bear* (2011), Writer
- *Griff the Invisible* (2011), Thanks
- *Animal Kingdom* (2010), as Reporter · Screenplay, Director — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/animal-kingdom.md)
- *Hesher* (2010), Writer
- *Inside the Square* (2009), as Interviewer · Director
- *Solo* (2008), Director, Screenplay
- *The List* (2008), as Detective #1
- *Netherland Dwarf* (2008), Director, Writer
- *I Love Sarah Jane* (2008), Writer
- *Little Deaths* (2007), as Nathan
- *Spider* (2007), as Hit Driver · Writer
- *Crossbow* (2007), Narrator / Lounge, Director, Writer
- *Dangerous* (2007), series, Writer
- *Ezra White, LL.B.* (2006), Director, Writer
- *The IF Thing* (2005), Writer
- *Eugenie Sandler P.I.* (2000), series, as Trevor
- *Wizards!*, Director, Story, Writer

## Gallery

- ![David Michôd](https://film.one/media/person/119778/gallery-453790559d3a.jpg) David Michôd — Eva Rinaldi, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/David_Mich%C3%B4d_%28cropped%29_2.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![w:David Michôd & w:Mirrah Foulkes at Killing Then Softly movie premiere 2012 'Killing Them Softly' enjoyed its Sydney, Australia movie premiere at Dendy Ope](https://film.one/media/person/119778/gallery-c2f968f138f6.jpg) w:David Michôd & w:Mirrah Foulkes at Killing Then Softly movie premiere 2012 'Killing Them Softly' enjoyed its Sydney, Australia movie premiere at Dendy Ope — Eva Rinaldi, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/David_Mich%C3%B4d_%26_Mirrah_Foulkes_2012_%281%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![w:David Michôd & w:Mirrah Foulkes at Killing Then Softly movie premiere 2012 Writer/ director Andrew Dominik (Chopper, The Assassination of Jesse James by t](https://film.one/media/person/119778/gallery-362e3c50302b.jpg) w:David Michôd & w:Mirrah Foulkes at Killing Then Softly movie premiere 2012 Writer/ director Andrew Dominik (Chopper, The Assassination of Jesse James by t — Eva Rinaldi, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/David_Mich%C3%B4d_%26_Mirrah_Foulkes_2012_%282%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![David Michôd](https://film.one/media/person/119778/gallery-ed52f669d64d.jpg) David Michôd — Image via TMDB
- ![David Michôd](https://film.one/media/person/119778/gallery-1d759af4a58c.jpg) David Michôd — Image via TMDB
- ![David Michôd](https://film.one/media/person/119778/gallery-7f9024dbbeca.jpg) David Michôd — Image via TMDB

---
© 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/david-michod