Martin Fabinyi

Martin Fabinyi was born and grew up in Melbourne. He was the second son of Andrew Fabinyi, who left Budapest in 1938 and arrived in Melbourne in 1939 and was later an influential book publisher. His mother was Elisabeth Robinson.

Fabinyi was educated at Wesley College, Melbourne, where he founded the Anti-Vietnam War group, infamously organising the throwing of red paint onto the car of President Lyndon Johnson during his trip to Australia. He worked as a film editor and appeared on the children’s Uncle Norm show as Cousin Martin on the Nine Network and then spent two years studying drama at Flinders University in Adelaide from 1969 where he founded and edited the student newspaper Empire Times.

In 1973 he moved to Sydney and joined the Filmmakers Co-op. Fabinyi, who had shot independent works in Adelaide, received a grant from the Experimental Film Board to make The Vacuum, one of the first projects in Australia to be shot on portable videotape. A satire on the personalities behind religious cults, featuring a game show starring Johnny O'Keefe and drag act Sylvia and the Synthetics, the video premiered at the Co-op and toured universities with a live performance from the Synthetics and Fabinyi's earlier work, including the controversial TV Dinner, which polarised audiences due its uncompromising and unerotic sexual subject matter. Fabinyi, who was influenced by German artist Otto Muehl, continued to work in video and was a founding member of Bush Video, the group which wired up and broadcast on-site during the 1973 Aquarius Festival in Nimbin. In 1974 Fabinyi received a grant to screen a selection of Australian experimental films in London which was warmly received.

He continued working with the group Sylvia and the Synthetics in performance art and was invited to participate in the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 1975. His piece, which involved nudity and video (the audience only seeing the video and therefore not sure whether the event was live or not) was staged in a tent next to the Torrens River and attracted the attention of the local police who claimed they could see behind the screens and charged Fabinyi with "Aiding and abetting an indecent act". Whilst the Adelaide Festival organisers debated whether to show the video across the city (that year monitors screened events on most city street corners), Fabinyi was in court. Eventually, after an appeal was lost, he was sentenced to three months hard labour. This was reported in Sydney by Richard Neville in the Nation Review as an outrage, prompting still more debate.

Fabinyi returned to Sydney and the world of rock and roll, teaming with photographer Philip Morris for the book, The Bumper Book of Rock. He and Philip designed record covers, photo shoots and documented the 1970s Sydney scene and the life of Johnny O'Keefe. Fabinyi also began writing feature film scripts with co-writers and directors including Cameron Allan.

Allan and Fabinyi shared a passion for pop music and Sydney-based band Mental As Anything became the first signing for their new label, Regular Records, formed in September 1978. The band were soon managed by his brother, Jeremy. Distributed by Festival Records,Regular Records remained as an independent label for fifteen years, breaking artists such as Icehouse, I’m Talking and Kate Ceberano. As Sydney’s most influential pop music label, Regular sold over a million albums, including “Australiana”, which became the highest selling 12” single in Australian charts history for comedian, Austen Tayshus.

In 1990, Fabinyi was appointed editor of Follow Me Gentlemen, the men's fashion version of Follow Me. Changing the name to FMG, the magazine was a precursor to men's fashion and general magazines. In 1999, Fabinyi and Toby Creswell co-authored The Real Thing, a history of Australian rock and roll between 1957 and the late 1990s.

When Regular Records was sold to its distributor, Fabinyi formed Mushroom Pictures with Michael Gudinski. Mushroom Pictures began with documentaries, for the ABC, Discovery Channel and the Nine Network. Titles such as Tribal Voice featuring Yothu Yindi, Kate Ceberano & Friends, Next To Nothing and Nothing to Hide (on lingerie and swimwear) and The Singer and The Swinger (the story of Johnny O'Keefe and Lee Gordon) cemented Mushroom's documentary credentials.

In 2000, Mushroom Pictures produced and released the horror feature spoof Cut starring Molly Ringwald and Kylie Minogue, which was sold worldwide and achieved box office success in Europe and Asia. Mushroom Pictures' second feature, Chopper, which Fabinyi executive produced, was the first Australian "R” rated feature to go No. 1, grossing over $5 million. It became a worldwide cult phenomena and launched the careers of both director Andrew Dominik and actor Eric Bana. Mushroom Pictures moved into local distribution with Russian Doll. In 2003, Fabinyi produced Gettin' Square, directed by Jonathan Teplitzky and starring David Wenham and Sam Worthington, which garnered box office success and critical acclaim. This was followed by Geoffrey Wright's take on Macbeth, also starring Sam Worthington. Mushroom Pictures moved back to television with Great Australian Albums Volumes 1 & 2, an eight-hour documentary set of the most influential Australian bands for SBS Television. It was described by Graeme Blundell in The Australian as the best documentary series of the year. Mushroom Pictures distributed the US documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil, the acclaimed feature Cedar Boys, and Mad Bastards in 2010.

In 2011 Fabinyi joined Beyond Entertainment as Head of Documentaries and Feature Films.

The feature Manny Lewis was released in 2015 in conjunction with Studio Canal, and the origins of AC/DC were a major part of the documentary on the legendary label Albert Productions, Blood + Thunder, written and directed by Paul Clarke. This 2-hour documentary was screened on ABC-TV and BBC4.

Fabinyi and Beyond CEO Mikael Borglund are executive producing the 13- part music documentary series Days Like These, and Beyond is producing the feature documentary on Midnight Oil in conjunction with Blink TV. Beyond Entertainment is also in development on a number of scripted features with emerging filmmakers.

Fabinyi was married to fashion designer Jenny-Jane Carpenter from 1988 to 1993.

1975 – Director, Writer, Producer – The Vacuum – video feature

1990 Music Co-Ordinator – The Crossing – feature film

1993 Producer - Tribal Voice - Yothu Yindi - tv docentary

1993 Executive Producer: Fashion – TV series

1994 Executive Producer: Kate Ceberano & Friends - tv series

1995 Executive Producer – Next To Nothing/Nothing To Hide – tv series

1996 Executive Producer - Counting The Beat – TV documentary

1998 Executive Producer: The Singer & The Swinger – documentary

2000 Producer: Cut — feature film

2000 Executive Producer: Chopper — feature film

2003 Producer: Gettin' Square — feature film

2005 Executive Producer: Wolf Creek — feature film

2007 Executive Producer – Storm Warning – feature film

2007-2008 Executive Producer: Great Australian Albums –8 x 1 hr TV  series

2008 Executive Producer: Cannot Buy My Soul feature documentary

2009 Executive Producer: Cedar Boys — feature film

2012 Co-Executive Producer: Bait  3D – feature film

2015 Producer Manny Lewis – feature film

2015 Producer – Blood + Thunder – 2 X 1 hour documentary

2016 Executive Producer – Indigo Lake – feature film

2018 Producer – Backburning – 15 minute documentary

2021-2022 Producer – Midnight Oil Project – feature documentary

2021-2022 Executive Producer – Days Like These – television series 1 X 13 hours

2022 Executive Producer – John Farnham – Finding The Voice – feature documentary

Mental As Anything

Icehouse

Austen Tayshus

Stephen Cummings

Electric Pandas

The Reels

The Cockroaches

I’m Talking

Kate Ceberano

The Johnnys

The Riptides

Club Hoy

Third Eye

SPK

Dog Trumpet

Tiny Tim

Deckchairs Overboard

Cattletruck

• 2003 AFI Awards – 'Best Film' (Gettin' Square) – nominee

2003 IF Awards – 'Best Film' (Gettin' Square) – nominee

2003 IF Awards – 'Best Film' (Gettin' Square) – nominee

2015 Screen Producer's Award - 'Best Documentary' (Blood + Thunder' = nominee