My Brilliant Career

Set in the Australian countryside at the end of the nineteenth century, My Brilliant Career follows Sybylla Melvyn, a headstrong young woman with little patience for farm chores and a fierce wish to become a writer. Her family Presses her to settle down and marry, but she refuses to give up her independence, even when a wealthy childhood friend, Harry Beecham, proposes. Offered a place in her grandmother's more comfortable household, Sybylla moves between two worlds and keeps choosing her own path.

Gillian Armstrong directed the film, her first feature, working from a screenplay by Eleanor Witcombe; Margaret Fink produced it, and it was made in Australia. Judy Davis plays Sybylla, with Sam Neill as Harry Beecham and Wendy Hughes as Aunt Helen among a credited cast of 36. Running 100 minutes, it belongs to the drama and romance genres. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.1 from around 5,300 votes, while on TMDB it has a 6.2 from a much smaller base of 83 votes, a gap that reflects how limited that second sample is. Armstrong went on to direct Starstruck, Mrs. Soffel, Little Women, Charlotte Gray and Death Defying Acts, making this the starting point of a long career rather than a one-off.