Sophie Byrne

Sophie Byrne is an Australian film and TV producer, best known for the Academy Award winning animated short The Lost Thing.

There she produced many award-winning projects, including the initial pilot for the hugely successful concept band Gorillaz—created by Jamie Hewlett (Tank Girl comic) and Damon Albarn (Blur)—and their seminal ‘Clint Eastwood’ music video.

[1] Returning to Melbourne, Australia in 2002 Byrne started Passion Pictures Australia,[2] optioned the acclaimed cult concept Scarygirl and has worked closely with artist Nathan Jurevicius to successfully expand the brand across all media[3] including producing the online gaming prototype, which was nominated for the 2009 AFI Screen Content Innovation Award.

[4] In 2010 Byrne produced the Academy Award-winning short film, The Lost Thing, based on Shaun Tan’s picture book.

[5] After being introduced to the book, Sophie tracked Shaun down and asked him to co-direct the short film adaptation with Andrew Ruhemann, and cast Tim Minchin in the role of the narrator.