Hi my name is Gracie Otto. I was advised not to do a biography as it wouldn't make sense as i like to do many things and sometimes people end up "confused". I went to a public school in Sydney and started off playing football in the Australian Indoor women's team and Softball for NSW. I went to Sydney Film school when I was 17 and I moved to Paris after and worked in a bar for 5 euros an hour and learnt french by dating terrible men who didn't speak English and going out to nightclubs. I came back and acted in a feature film which I also edited that went to Toronto Film Festival amongst others. People were like wow you're an actress and an editor. But i thought no, i went to film school to be a director.
I then moved to LA and gave up acting after 3 months because I was too impatient. A chance encounter in 2010 I met Michael White at the Cannes Film Festival and spent 3 years making a documentary on him which premiered at the London Film Festival and came out in cinemas in the UK, USA and Australia. it was nominated for an AACTA for Best Feature Documentary in Australia. I started doing a lot of fashion films as well as exploring the world. People were like wow you're a documentary film maker. I was like maybe.
ABOUT RALF FILMS
Ralf Films was established in 2012 by Gracie Otto.
Gracie is an accomplished Australian filmmaker with substantial credits as a director, writer, editor and actress. In 2013 Gracie's debut feature documentary The Last Impresario premiered at the London Film Festival. Gracie comes from an acting family (father Barry, sister Miranda) and graduated from Sydney Film School in 2006.
Gracie specialises in cinematic short fashion films for international magazines and major companies. Her five short films – Seamstress, La Meme Nuit, Tango Trois, Broken Beat, and Kill Blondes – have won awards and screened internationally. Gracie also starred in and edited Three Blind Mice which won the Fipresci Prize at the 2008 London Film Festival.
In 2015 Gracie co-founded the all-female production company Dollhouse Pictures alongside filmmakers Rose Byrne, Jessica Carrera, Shannon Murphy and Krew Boylan.
Gracie is currently working alongside Aquarius Films as director on the second season of Stan's The Other Guy. She is also directing the currently in pre-production feature film adaptation of Armistead Maupin's audacious novel, Maybe the Moon.
In addition to ongoing commercial work, Gracie has two feature dramas in development – Rue de Tournon and Girls In Hotels in partnership with Dollhouse Pictures.
In 2015 I thought I should move to LA, and worked as Associate Producer on Nick Broomfield's "Whitney Can I be Me" as well as deciding to do Stand Up Comedy as an excuse for my twenties. (until my tax man said " then you realised it wasn't that funny" thank you shout out to Baydr at Entertaining Taxes)
This year I put everything into storage so i have one tiny padlock somewhere so I am back in Sydney making a documentary about my father Barry Otto.
If you follow me on Instagram you are likely only to see videos of my Brown Burmese Bogart (I have another grey cat too called Bluebelle) We share a birthday. I am gemini, obviously. I also tried really hard to use punctuation but i think i failed, remember I'm a visual person - and I believe strongly in having pasta for dinner 5 days a week and if not being super fit using charm.
People ask me ‘what do you do?’ Things.
- GRACIE
IN PRODUCTION
The Other Guy (TV Series) Stan’s series in collaboration with Aquarius Films
Under the Volcano (Documentary Feature) Produced by Cody Greenwood, the doco will centre around the iconic recording studio on Montserrat founded by The Beatles producer, Sir George Martin.
Girls in Hotels (Narrative Feature) A series of vigenettes of five interwoven stories of women living in hotels spread across the world.
Breakfast with… (Online Series) is a series of interviews with accomplished artists, celebrities and personalities hosted by Gracie Otto. Or rather, they host her!