Richard Leonard, SJ
Sydney - Charter Member - Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting - SIGNIS - Author
A Jesuit priest, author, educator, and film critic, Rev. Dr. Richard Leonard, SJ directs the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting. He along with his staff represent Australia in SIGNIS’s circle of film critics, and he was instrumental in expanding Catholic Film Critics globally. The ICFCA welcomes him as one of its charter members.
Father Richard’s reviews are featured in all the major Australian Catholic newspapers. He has served on juries at the Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Hong Kong, Warsaw, Montréal, Brisbane and Melbourne International Film Festivals. He is also a member of the Australian Catholic Media Council.
He did graduate studies at the London Film School and has a PhD from the University of Melbourne. He directs the Australian Catholic Office for Film & Broadcasting, is an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Catholic University; has been a visiting scholar within the School of Theatre, Film & Television at UCLA and a Visiting Professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He has lectured on faith and culture all over the world.
Richard has been published in America Magazine, Eureka Street, US Catholics, is regular columnist with The London Tablet and is a regular guest on ABC Radio.
He is the author of ten books, among the titles are: The Mystical Gaze of the Cinema: The Films of Peter Weir and Movies That Matter: Reading Film Through the Lens of Faith are his film books. He has also written Where the Hell is God?; Preaching to the Converted Throughout the Sundays and Feastdays of the Year; What does it all mean? A guide to being more faithful, hopeful and loving; his most recent book is Hatch, Match & Dispatch: A Catholic Guide to Sacraments.
Born at Warwick, Queensland, having grown up in Toowoomba, Father Leonard has undergraduate degrees in arts, education and theology, as well as a masters degree in systematic theology. After ordination to the priesthood in 1993, he was apprenticed to Albert Street Productions where he wrote, produced and directed documentary films for Australian television.
He is based in Sydney.
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Read his reviews at the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting.