Film maker

Hicks was born in Uganda and lived in Africa until the age of ten when his family moved to England. The family settled in Adelaide, South Australia, when Hicks was 14. He was educated at Flinders University and graduated with a Bachelors Degree and Honours in Arts in 1975. Flinders University awarded Hicks an honorary doctorate in 1997.

Hicks began his film career working on the crew of various features and went on to make a number of short features and documentaries. In 1988 he made Sebastian and the Sparrow, a film for children. The following year Hicks filmed the documentary series The Great Wall of Iron on location with China's People's Liberation Army. The series became the highest rating programme screened on the Discovery Channel in the United States. In 1994 Hicks made another well-received documentary series, Submarines: Sharks of Steel, which went on to win an Emmy Award.

Hicks' film, Shine, about the life of Australian pianist David Helfgott was released in 1996 to critical acclaim. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won the Best Actor award for Geoffrey Rush who portrayed Helfgott. Shine also received eight British Academy of Film and Television Arta (BAFTA) Award nominations and five Golden Globe nominations and won nine Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards, including Best Film and Best Director. Hicks' following film Snow Falling on Cedars, based on the novel by David Guterson, was nominated for the Best Cinematography Academy Award. In 2001 Hicks' Hearts in Atlantis was released.

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1989: Won Peabody Award for his The Great Wall of Iron documentary series about the People's Liberation Army of China in the months prior to Tianamen Square protests

1994: Awarded an Emmy for his documentary Submarines: Sharks of Steel

1996: Shine released; nominated for seven Academy Awards (including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor which it won for Geoffrey Rush) and eight BAFTA Awards and won nine AFI Awards

1999: Snow Falling on Cedars released

2001: Hearts in Atlantis released

Shine [videorecording], [Australia] : Australian Film Finance : Roadshow Entertainment [distributor], [199-?]

Snow falling on cedars [videorecording] / Universal Pictures presents a Harry J. Ufland/Ron Bass-Kennedy/Marshall Production ; a Scott Hicks film, Universal City, CA : Universal Studios; [Australia] : Columbia TriStar Home Video [distributor], c2000