Bojana Novakovic
Encyclopedia
Bojana Novakovic is a Serbian Australian actress who works in Australia and the United States.
. She moved to Australia in 1988, at the age of seven. Novakovic was initially interested in becoming a social worker or doctor, but after a significant set of events, she changed her mind and decided to pursue performing arts. Novakovic studied at The McDonald College in Sydney, (where she was Dux of 1999) and graduated from NIDA
with a BA in Dramatic Arts in 2002. She has a younger sister, Valentina, who is also an actress, currently performing in the Australian soap opera, Neighbours
.
mini-series Marking Time
, a role which won her an AFI Award
for "Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Television Drama or Comedy". As an actor, Novakovic's film credits in Australia include Blackrock
(1996), Strange Fits of Passion (1998), The Monkey's Mask
(1999), Thunderstruck
(2004), Solo (2005), and the Serbian movies Optimisti
(2005) and Skinning (2010). Recent breakout roles include Drag Me to Hell
(2009), Edge of Darkness (2009) and Devil
(2010). Upcoming films include Burning Man and Generation Um.
Theatre credits in Australia include These People, Away
and Strange Fruit at the Sydney Theatre Company
; The Female of the Species
at the Melbourne Theatre Company
; Woyzeck
(Helpmann award nomination for best supporting actress in 2009), Criminology (Green Room award
nomination for best actress 2007), Eldorado (Helpmann nomination for best supporting actress, 2006) and Necessary Targets at the Malthouse Theatre
in Melbourne, Death Variations and Loveplay (Ride On) for B Sharp, Romeo and Juliet
with Bell Shakespeare Company
and Debris for Ride On Theatre (which received a Green Room nomination for best Independent production and best actress in 2006).
Novakovic also runs her own independent theatre company, Ride On Theatre (Sydney and Melbourne) with co-director Tanya Goldberg. She was a producer and performer for the 2004 Ride On Theatre sell out season of LOVEPLAY at the Downstairs Belvoir Street Theatre
, and the 2006 Green Room nominated production of Debris (in which she was also nominated for best actress).
In 2008, she translated, adapted and directed Fake Porno in Melbourne, which was invited to be part of the Powerhouse season in Brisbane
in 2009, and also received three Green Room nominations including best production. Outside of Ride On, she wrote and directed with Melbourne's Black Lung Theatre for the critically acclaimed production of Sugar at the 2007 Adelaide Fringe Festival
.
Novakovic also works as a Serbian translator for theatre and film. She stays in touch with her Australian roots by working extensively with the country's refugees.
In 2010, Novakovic received an AFI nomination for International Award for Best Actress for her role in Edge of Darkness.
, a self proclaimed genius and recluse from the very early 20th century in Butte, Montana
. Novakovic is writing the piece with musician Tim Rogers
and Tanya Goldberg is set to direct. They have received funding from the Australia Council for the Arts for a development of the show with support from Malthouse Theatre as well as production funding from Art NSW. A comprehensive MacLane anthology - Human Days: A Mary MacLane Anthology - is debut in Australia with a Foreword by Novakovic in late November 2011. The second volume, A Quite Unusual Intensity of Life: A Mary MacLane Companion, also issued under the Petrarca Press logo, is to be published in late 2012. The two volumes are to total 1200+ pages.
Early and personal life
Novakovic was born in 1981 in SerbiaSerbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
. She moved to Australia in 1988, at the age of seven. Novakovic was initially interested in becoming a social worker or doctor, but after a significant set of events, she changed her mind and decided to pursue performing arts. Novakovic studied at The McDonald College in Sydney, (where she was Dux of 1999) and graduated from NIDA
National Institute of Dramatic Art
The National Institute of Dramatic Art is an Australian national training institute for students of theatre, film, and television, based in the Sydney suburb of Kensington. It is supported by the federal Office for the Arts, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. NIDA is located adjacent...
with a BA in Dramatic Arts in 2002. She has a younger sister, Valentina, who is also an actress, currently performing in the Australian soap opera, Neighbours
Neighbours
Neighbours is an Australian television soap opera first broadcast on the Seven Network on 18 March 1985. It was created by TV executive Reg Watson, who proposed the idea of making a show that focused on realistic stories and portrayed adults and teenagers who talk openly and solve their problems...
.
Career
In 2003, Novakovic played Randa in the ABCAustralian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
mini-series Marking Time
Marking Time
Marking Time was an Australian television mini-series, consisting of four one-hour episodes. It first aired on 9 and 10 November 2003 on ABC-TV...
, a role which won her an AFI Award
Australian Film Institute Awards
The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award, known as the AACTA Award , is an accolade presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts . The awards recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry and television industry, including directors,...
for "Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Television Drama or Comedy". As an actor, Novakovic's film credits in Australia include Blackrock
Blackrock (film)
Blackrock is a 1997 Australian film directed by Steven Vidler and written by Nick Enright. Internationally, it is best remembered as the first prominent role of actor Heath Ledger.-Origin:...
(1996), Strange Fits of Passion (1998), The Monkey's Mask
The Monkey's Mask
The Monkey's Mask is a 2000 thriller film directed by Samantha Lang. It stars Susie Porter and Kelly McGillis. Porter plays a lesbian private detective who falls in love with a suspect in the disappearance of a young woman...
(1999), Thunderstruck
Thunderstruck (film)
Thunderstruck is a 2004 movie starring Stephen Curry , Damon Gameau , Ryan Johnson , Callan Mulvey , and Sam Worthington . The title of the movie was taken from the AC/DC song of the same name.-Plot:...
(2004), Solo (2005), and the Serbian movies Optimisti
The Optimists (2006 film)
The Optimists is a 2006 Serbian black comedy film directed by Goran Paskaljević. The film, presented as five unrelated narrative sequences, was inspired by Voltaire's satirical work Candide...
(2005) and Skinning (2010). Recent breakout roles include Drag Me to Hell
Drag Me to Hell
Drag Me to Hell is a 2009 American horror film, directed by Sam Raimi, with a screenplay by Sam and Ivan Raimi. The plot focuses on loan officer Christine Brown , who tries to impress her boss by refusing to extend a loan to a gypsy woman by the name of Mrs. Ganush...
(2009), Edge of Darkness (2009) and Devil
Devil (film)
Devil is a 2010 American supernatural horror film directed by John Erick Dowdle and written by Brian Nelson based on a story by M. Night Shyamalan. The film stars Chris Messina, Bojana Novakovic, Bokeem Woodbine, Logan Marshall-Green, Jenny O'Hara and Geoffrey Arend...
(2010). Upcoming films include Burning Man and Generation Um.
Theatre credits in Australia include These People, Away
Away
Away is a play written by the Australian playwright Michael Gow. First performed by the Griffin Theatre Company in 1986, it tells the story of three internally-conflicted families holidaying on the coast for Christmas, 1968...
and Strange Fruit at the Sydney Theatre Company
Sydney Theatre Company
The Sydney Theatre Company is one of Australia's best-known theatre companies operating from The Wharf Theatre near The Rocks area of Sydney, as well as the Sydney Theatre and the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre....
; The Female of the Species
The Female of the Species (play)
The Female of the Species is a comic play by Joanna Murray-Smith first performed in 2006. The play is a satire about celebrity feminists, with a plot loosely inspired by a real-life incident in 2000, when author Germaine Greer was held at gunpoint in her own home by a disturbed student.The play...
at the Melbourne Theatre Company
Melbourne Theatre Company
The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne. Founded in 1953, it is the oldest professional theatre company in Australia, and has its own theatre, The MTC Theatre – which houses the 500-seat Sumner Theatre and the 150-seat Lawler Studio – located in Melbourne's Arts...
; Woyzeck
Woyzeck
Woyzeck is a stage play written by Georg Büchner. He left the work incomplete at his death, but it has been variously and posthumously "finished" by a variety of authors, editors and translators. Woyzeck has become one of the most performed and influential plays in the German theatre...
(Helpmann award nomination for best supporting actress in 2009), Criminology (Green Room award
Green Room Awards
The Green Room Awards are peer awards which recognise excellence in cabaret, dance, drama, fringe theatre, musical theatre and opera in Melbourne....
nomination for best actress 2007), Eldorado (Helpmann nomination for best supporting actress, 2006) and Necessary Targets at the Malthouse Theatre
Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne
Malthouse Theatre is the resident theatre company of the Malthouse performing arts complex in Southbank, part of the Melbourne Arts Precinct....
in Melbourne, Death Variations and Loveplay (Ride On) for B Sharp, Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
with Bell Shakespeare Company
Bell Shakespeare Company
Bell Shakespeare is an Australian theatre company specialising in the works of William Shakespeare. It was founded in 1990 by John Bell..Bell Shakespeare is Australia's only national touring theatre company. Its current practice is to tour three mainstage productions to each Australian state in...
and Debris for Ride On Theatre (which received a Green Room nomination for best Independent production and best actress in 2006).
Novakovic also runs her own independent theatre company, Ride On Theatre (Sydney and Melbourne) with co-director Tanya Goldberg. She was a producer and performer for the 2004 Ride On Theatre sell out season of LOVEPLAY at the Downstairs Belvoir Street Theatre
Belvoir St Theatre
Belvoir St Theatre is an Australian theatre venue in Sydney. The venue in Belvoir Street, Surry Hills previously operated as the Nimrod Theatre, and was founded as "Belvoir St" in 1984 by Sue Hill and Chris Westwood...
, and the 2006 Green Room nominated production of Debris (in which she was also nominated for best actress).
In 2008, she translated, adapted and directed Fake Porno in Melbourne, which was invited to be part of the Powerhouse season in Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
in 2009, and also received three Green Room nominations including best production. Outside of Ride On, she wrote and directed with Melbourne's Black Lung Theatre for the critically acclaimed production of Sugar at the 2007 Adelaide Fringe Festival
Adelaide Fringe Festival
The Adelaide Fringe Festival is an arts festival held annually in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. The event is the Southern Hemisphere's largest arts event and the second-largest fringe festival in the world, second in size only to the Edinburgh Fringe...
.
Novakovic also works as a Serbian translator for theatre and film. She stays in touch with her Australian roots by working extensively with the country's refugees.
In 2010, Novakovic received an AFI nomination for International Award for Best Actress for her role in Edge of Darkness.
Works on Mary MacLane
Ride On's late 2011 production was The Story of Mary MacLane by Herself, based on the writings of Mary MacLaneMary MacLane
Mary MacLane was a controversial Canadian-born American writer whose frank memoirs helped usher in the confessional style of autobiographical writing...
, a self proclaimed genius and recluse from the very early 20th century in Butte, Montana
Butte, Montana
Butte is a city in Montana and the county seat of Silver Bow County, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. As of the 2010 census, Butte's population was 34,200...
. Novakovic is writing the piece with musician Tim Rogers
Tim Rogers
Tim Rogers is the frontman of Australian rock band You Am I. He is also a solo artist, as well as having fronted and released albums with bands The Twin Set and The Temperance Union.-History:...
and Tanya Goldberg is set to direct. They have received funding from the Australia Council for the Arts for a development of the show with support from Malthouse Theatre as well as production funding from Art NSW. A comprehensive MacLane anthology - Human Days: A Mary MacLane Anthology - is debut in Australia with a Foreword by Novakovic in late November 2011. The second volume, A Quite Unusual Intensity of Life: A Mary MacLane Companion, also issued under the Petrarca Press logo, is to be published in late 2012. The two volumes are to total 1200+ pages.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | House of Fun | Gymnast | TV series |
| 1997 | Blackrock Blackrock (film) Blackrock is a 1997 Australian film directed by Steven Vidler and written by Nick Enright. Internationally, it is best remembered as the first prominent role of actor Heath Ledger.-Origin:... |
Tracy | Credited as Boyana Novakovich |
| 1999 | Heartbreak High Heartbreak High Heartbreak High is an Australian television series that ran for seven years from 1994 to 1999. The series dealt with the students of Hartley High, a tough high school in a multi-racial area of Sydney, and proved to be a more gritty and fast-paced show than many of its contemporaries... |
Tasha | TV series, 2 episodes |
| 1999 | Big Sky | Leisa | TV series, episode: "Desperate Measures" |
| 1999 | Strange Fits of Passion | Jaya | |
| 1999 | WildSide | Vildana Asimovic | TV series, 2 episodes |
| 1999 | Murder Call Murder Call Murder Call was an Australian television series, created by Hal McElroy for the Southern Star Entertainment and seen on the Nine Network between 1997 and 2000. The idea to the series was born by the books of Tessa Vance by Jennifer Rowe: Suspect/Deadline and Something Wicked... |
Sophie Misfud | TV series, episode: "Bad Business" |
| 1999 | All Saints All Saints (TV series) All Saints is an Australian medical drama which first screened on the Seven Network. The series debuted on 24 February 1998 and concluded its run on 27 October 2009... |
Rachel Carpenter | TV series, episode: "Ghosts of Christmas Past" |
| 2000 | Water Rats Water Rats (TV series) Water Rats is an Australian TV police procedural broadcast on the Nine Network from 1996 to 2001. The series was based around the men and women of the Sydney Water Police who fight crime across Sydney Harbour and surrounding locales. The show was set on and around Goat Island in Sydney... |
Sarah Schreiber | TV series, episode: "A Day to Remember (Break Your Heart)" |
| 2000 | Tianna | ||
| 2003 | Marking Time Marking Time Marking Time was an Australian television mini-series, consisting of four one-hour episodes. It first aired on 9 and 10 November 2003 on ABC-TV... |
Randa | TV movie |
| 2004 | Everything Goes Everything Goes Everything Goes, released in 2004, is an award-winning short film directed by Andrew Kotatko. It is based on the short story Why Don't You Dance? from Raymond Carver's collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. The film stars Hugo Weaving, Abbie Cornish and Sullivan Stapleton... |
Brianie's Friend | Short film |
| 2004 | Thunderstruck Thunderstruck (film) Thunderstruck is a 2004 movie starring Stephen Curry , Damon Gameau , Ryan Johnson , Callan Mulvey , and Sam Worthington . The title of the movie was taken from the AC/DC song of the same name.-Plot:... |
Anna | |
| 2004–2005 | Raffa | TV series, 13 episodes | |
| 2005 | Mademoiselle "X" | Short film | |
| 2006 | Solo | Billie | |
| 2006 | Marina | ||
| 2006 | BlackJack: At the Gates | Nikki | TV movie |
| 2007–2009 | Satisfaction Satisfaction (TV series) Satisfaction is an Australian television drama series which screened on the subscription television channel Showcase. It also screens in the Republic of Ireland on free-to-air channel TV3 and its sister channel 3e and in New Zealand on free-to-air channel TV2 respectively.The series was filmed in... |
Tippi | TV series, 20 episodes |
| 2008 | Seven Pounds Seven Pounds Seven Pounds is a 2008 film, directed by Gabriele Muccino. Will Smith stars as a man who sets out to change the lives of seven people. Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson, and Barry Pepper star. The film was released in theaters in the United States and Canada on December 19, 2008, by Columbia Pictures... |
Julie | |
| 2009 | Drag Me to Hell Drag Me to Hell Drag Me to Hell is a 2009 American horror film, directed by Sam Raimi, with a screenplay by Sam and Ivan Raimi. The plot focuses on loan officer Christine Brown , who tries to impress her boss by refusing to extend a loan to a gypsy woman by the name of Mrs. Ganush... |
Ilenka Ganush | |
| 2010 | Edge of Darkness | Emma Craven | |
| 2010 | Devil | Sarah Caraway | |
| 2010 | Skinning Skinning (film) Skinning is a 2010 Serbian film directed by Stefan Filipović. It premiered on 6 October 2010 in Sava Centar in Belgrade.- Plot :The film opens with actual footage of protests in front of American embassy in Belgrade following the Kosovo is Serbia protest rally that was held in response to 17... |
Mina | |
| 2011 | Burning Man | Sarah | |
| 2012 | Generation Um... | ||
| 2011 | Shadows from the Sky | Dr. Valentina Federova |