Julius Avery was an Australian writer and director best known for the feature film "Son of a Gun" (2014) and award-winning short films. He said that all his films drew on his childhood experiences growing up in rural Australia. His father died when he was five, and Avery said that he was drawn to action movies from a young age because he was searching for a father figure. He studied film at the Victorian College of the Arts, where he began making short films. It was his short film "Jerrycan" (2008) about a young boy's experience with bullying that brought him into the public eye. The film earned prizes at Cannes and Sundance. Avery's films, "End of Town" (2006) and "Yardbird" (2012) also earned him film awards in his native Australia. The Ewan McGregor-starring "Son of a Gun" was Avery's first feature film. The heist movie centered on the relationship between Australia's public enemy number one (McGregor) and his protege (Brenton Thwaites). Like Avery's other films, it was semi-autobiographical, drawing on Avery's experience falling in with a bad crowd and under the influence of a dangerous father figure. The film earned mixed reviews, at once praising Avery's embrace of the heist genre and accusing it of relying on clichés.