[3] At age 15, with the help of his father, he gained a cadetship at the Sydney Evening News,[1] where he became friends with a young Kenneth Slessor, then a cadet for another paper.

[5] In 1924, Hall joined the American distribution company First National Pictures as a publicist, and visited Hollywood the following year.

Hall began making films in 1928 when at First National he was assigned to recut and shoot additional sequences for a German movie about the Battle of Cocos, Our Emden.

Doyle established Cinesound Productions to make local films and assigned Hall to direct a number of shorts including Thar She Blows!

It was a melodrama set in the Australian bush, and starred a discovery of Hall's, Jocelyn Howarth, who later had a Hollywood career as "Constance Worth".

[8] Dean Maitland was released on a double bill with Cinesound Varieties (1934), a short film directed by Hall featuring several musical acts.

Hall's fourth feature, Strike Me Lucky (1934), was a vehicle for stage comedian Roy "Mo" Rene, one of the most popular performers in Australia.

Hall intended to follow this movie with a version of Robbery Under Arms but decided not to proceed because of uncertainty arising from a ban the NSW government had on films about bushrangers.

[9] Hall returned to Australia with new filmmaking equipment and an American screenwriter Edmond Seward, who was to take over Cinesound's story department.

Richards was the female lead in Hall's next film, Tall Timbers (1937), an adventure tale set in logging country, based on a story by Frank Hurley.

Film production at Cinesound ground to a halt with the advent of World War II, although Hall kept busy during this period producing and directing newsreels, documentaries and short subjects, including Road to Victory (1941) and Anzacs in Overalls (1941).

This film was financed by Columbia Pictures, who went on to offer its star, Ron Randell, a long-term contract in Hollywood.

[13] In particular, an attempt to raise £160,000 to make two films in collaboration with Ealing Studios, including a version of Robbery Under Arms, was refused government permission.

[15] There he instigated the practice of showing feature films uncut; previously in Australia they had been cut to fit the television schedules.

Past winners of the Award are Alan Rydge and Rupert Murdoch (1995), Peter Weir (1996), Kodak Australasia Pty Ltd (1997), Joan Long AM (1999), Anthony Buckley (2000), Murray Forrest (2001), Judy Adamson (2002), Tom Nurse (2003) and archivist and historian Graham Shirley (2004).