Editing Tim Burstall (section)

==Early career==
Burstall's first film was a black-and-white [[Short film|short]], ''The Prize''. With photography by [[:de:Gérard Vandenberg|Gérard Vandenberg]], ''The Prize''  won a ''[[Bronze medal|bronze]]'' at the 1960 [[Venice Film Festival]]. Burstall's two young sons had acting roles.

Working with [[David Bilcock]], [[Dusan Marek]], [[Giorgio Mangiamele]], Gérard Vandenburg, Alan Harkness and composer [[George Dreyfus]], Eltham Films made many short subjects, including acclaimed documentaries on Australian art, and early children's puppet series ''[[Sebastian the Fox]]''. The latter first screened on the [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation|ABC]] in 1962-63, and Burstall later described the title character as "one of the first recessive Oz heroes".<ref name="Murray491"/>

From 1965 to 67 Burstall was in the United States on a [[Harkness Fellowship]]. He studied scriptwriting with [[Paddy Chayefsky]], directing with [[Martin Ritt]], and acting with [[Lee Strasberg]] and the [[Actors Studio]] in New York.<ref name = "Perry">Perry (2004)</ref>