Kenneth George Hall, AO, OBE (22 February 1901 – 8 February 1994), better known as Ken G. Hall, was an Australian film producer and director, considered one of the most important figures in the history of the Australian film industry. He was the first Australian to win an Academy Award. Early years Hall was born Kenneth George Hall in Paddington, Sydney, Australia in 1901, the third child of Charles and Florence Hall. He was educated at North Sydney Boys' High School. At age 15, with the help of his father, he gained a cadetship at the Sydney Evening News, where he became friends with a young Kenneth Slessor, then a cadet for another paper. Two years later, he became a publicist for Union Theatres, initially working as an assistant to Gayne Dexter. He had a six-month stint as manager for the Lyceum Theatre then returned to publicity, working his way up to national publicity director, "the highest post in film publicity in Australia" at that time. In 1924, Hall joined the American distribution company First National Pictures as a publicist, and visited Hollywood the following year. Directing career Early years: 1928–1930 Hall began making films in 1928 when at First National he was assigned to recut and shoot additional sequences for a German movie about the Battle of Cocos, Our Emden. The resulting film, The Exploits of the Emden, was a local hit. Hall moved back to Union Theatres, running publicity for the State Theatre in Sydney, and working on the campaign against the proposed entertainment tax from Stanley Bruce's government. He eventually became assistant to Stuart F. Doyle, managing director of the company. Formation of Cinesound: 1931–1934 Doyle established Cinesound Productions to make local films and assigned Hall to direct a number of shorts including Thar She Blows! (1931), about the whaling industry, and That's Cricket (1931). He then gave Hall the job of directing a film adaptation of the popular play On Our Selection, adapted by Bert Bailey from the writings of Steele Rudd about the adventures of a fictional Australian farming family, the Rudds, and the perennial father-and-son duo, 'Dad and Dave'. Hall persuaded Bailey to reprise his stage performance as Dad Rudd. The result was a massively popular film, which was among the top four most popular films in Australian cinemas in 1932, earning £46,000 in Australia and New Zealand by the end of 1933. Hall