Hicks was born on born 4 March 1953 in Uganda.[1][2] His father was a civil engineer. His family lived in Kenya, outside Nairobi[3] before moving to the UK when Scott was 10 years old,[1] and then moving to Adelaide, South Australia, when Hicks was 14 years old.[4] He had piano lessons until his early teens, and learnt to read music, but "wasn’t really prepared to put the necessary time in".[5]
Hicks enrolled for an arts degree at Flinders University in Adelaide when he was 16,[2] graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in 1975, along with his wife Kerry HeysenAM.[6][4]
Also with WEA, Hicks made a film clip for South Australian band Vertical Hold, costly for its time, for their third single, "Shotdown (In Love)" (1983). He used 16mm film rather than video for the clip.[12][2]
Film career
Films
Hicks started his film career in an industry stimulated by renewed government support for the arts, after a period of inactivity. South Australia was at the forefront of this Australian film revival, with established directors such as Peter Weir and Bruce Beresford coming to Adelaide to shoot their films.[citation needed]
Hicks started out working as a crew member on various feature films, before making several short films and documentaries on his own.[citation needed] In 1975 he co-directed and produced the hour-long fiction film Down the Wind.[15]
After working on Hearts in Atlantis (2001), Hicks decided to take time off and enjoy living at home. In that time, he fell into working on American television commercials, which he enjoyed, working with some of the best names in the business.[16]
In 2009 he made The Boys Are Back, an Australian-UK co-production starring Clive Owen, based on the 2001 memoir by Simon Carr,[18]The Boys Are Back in Town,[19][12] and filmed in South Australia.[2]
In 2014–15, Hicks made the documentary Highly Strung, about attempts by the Ngeringa Arts Centre to obtain four rare and valuable Guadagnini violins for the Australian String Quartet (ASQ). The film was produced by his wife Kerry Heysen, and opened the 2015 Adelaide Film Festival.[20][21] The film portrays the relationships within the ASQ, Australia's only full-time quartet, the wealthy arts patron, Ulrike Klein (founder of Jurlique) who purchases the violins, and a family of musicians and dealers in New York City called The Carpenters (David, Sean and Lauren Carpenter[22]). He said of the film: "This was about the people. People who are obsessed with what they're doing. Whether they're musicians, investors, dealers... they’re all obsessed".[17] He called the Carpenters "the Kardashians of the music world".[5]
The State Library of South Australia holds records of Hicks' life and work, including papers relating his work on many feature films and documentaries (original script drafts and development, correspondence, production files, publicity and marketing files, press cuttings, etc.), from 1970 to 2011. The accompanying catalogue description says: "His documentaries and feature films have helped inspire a new generation of Australian filmmakers and actors by telling unique, Australian stories which define us as a people".[2]
Hicks has been married to film producer Kerry Heysen since their student days.[6] They have two sons,[3] Scott and Jethro.[12]
Legacy
In 2024, Hicks donated his personal archive of film memorabilia and documentation to the State Library of South Australia, including such items as hand-drawn sketches of movie scenes, storyboards from completed films, and the glasses and costume worn by Geoffrey Rush in Shine. A large exhibition of the items is planned for late 2025.[26]
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