Alister Grierson is an Australian film director and scriptwriter. Born in Canberra in 1969, he completed his secondary schooling at Canberra Grammar, graduated in Economics and Arts from the Australian National University and studied Japanese in Tokyo. As an under 18 Australian Rules player, he represented the ACT in the Teal Cup but later switched codes to Rugby, playing 1st grade both for his school and the ANU. Whilst at university, his interest in film-making developed, and he later gained a Master of Arts in Directing at AFTRS. He has shot 15 short films winning three Tropfest awards[1] and is the director of the feature film, Kokoda, which he co-wrote.
In 2009 Grierson was invited on to the Avatar set during shooting by James Cameron, and was selected to direct a 3D cave-diving drama Sanctum, using the Cameron-developed Fusion Camera System.[2] The script is inspired by the near-death experience of one of the writers, Andrew Wight, who was trapped in a cave collapse under the Nullarbor Plain. It was shot at Warner Roadshow Studios on the Queensland Gold Coast, and the film opened 4 February 2011.[3] By mid-March the film had joined the top ten Worldwide Box Office Results (Australian Films): All Time,[4] in ninth position.[5] The worldwide gross had reached $101,776,104 by 27 September 2011.[6]