Jill Elizabeth[1] Stevenson, later Bilcock,[2] was born in 1948[3] in Horsham, Victoria, Australia. Her family, which included Jill and two brothers, moved to Melbourne when she was three, and her father left the family when she was four. Her mother worked full-time as a teacher at a technical school, and went to the University of Melbourne at night to complete a degree in commerce.[4] Artists, poets, and authors visited their home regularly.[5] She later said that she "didn't have a lot of parenting".[4]
She is a graduate of the Swinburne Film and Television School[6][7] (1968[5]), entering its first film course at the age of 17,[8] after leaving school and enrolling at Swinburne Technical College at the age of 15, encouraged by her mother.[5][4] She went on a student trip to China, which at the time was in the throes of the Cultural Revolution,[4] and generally closed to foreigners; she became an honorary Red Guard there.[5] When Brian Robinson started the first film course at Swinburne, she jumped at it. There she met Fred Schepisi, who was one of the examiners.[4]
Career
Bilcock began her career doing commercials (there being no Australian film industry then),[4] after being invited by Fred Schepisi to work at his company, The Film House.[8] Schepisi "let [them] run wild", and allowed the students to experiment with all aspects of filmmaking.[4] She started specialising in editing, assisted by Richard Lowenstein, who had also graduated from Swinburne.[4]
In the mid-1970s, she was invited to a job in London, but, travelling via India, ended up staying in that country for a year, living a hippie-style existence in Goa and taking bit parts in local films.[5]
Her editing style has been described as "boldly inventive",[8] and her editing of the Luhrmann films known for their "strikingly fast cutting, whirl of noise and colour and unconventional jumps".[4] She has said: "I want wild, I want innovative, unusual and visually extraordinary".[5] However, she changed pace on films such as Road to Perdition and The Dish.[4]
Bilcock is highly respected in the industry, and has received several lifetime achievement awards, including the AFI Byron Kennedy Award, AFI International Award for Excellence in Filmmaking, and IF Awards Lifetime Achievement Award.[5] In July 2018 Flicks film critic Glenn Dunks called Bilcock "one of Australia's greatest film practitioners. Probably the most successful film editor this country has ever produced". At that time, she had won five AFI Awards and been nominated for four more; been nominated for two AACTA Awards and four BAFTAs; and had received multiple career achievement awards.[18]
She has been awarded two official Australian honours:
2001: Centenary Medal, "For service to Australian society and film production"[19]
2018: Companion of the Order of Australia (the highest award), "For eminent service to the Australian motion picture industry as a film editor, to the promotion and development of the profession, as a role model, and through creative contributions to the nation's cultural identity", in the Queen's Birthday 2018 Honours List[1]
Cawthorne, Russell (1 April 2004). "Bilcock, Jill – The Bogus Detector". Urban Cinefile. Archived from the original on 18 March 2012. Retrieved 14 April 2015. Reporting based on an interview with Bilcock.
