Vincent Fantauzzo with wife Michelle and son Luca, with his Moran Prize-winning portrait of Baz Luhrmann. Picture: Sam Mooy Source: The Australian

Here’s a private side to Baz Luhrmann that is rarely made public.

It’s all about “creative stress”, and it’s this aspect of the renowned filmmaker Vincent Fantauzzo tried to capture in his painting, Off Screen.

“This is a moment where Baz is very vulnerable and anxious, and (feels he is) being judged,” he said.

Fantauzzo’s work was yesterday named the winner of the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, which at $150,000 is the nation’s richest art prize.

According to Fantauzzo, one of Luhrmann’s more vulnerable moments occurred after the critical reception to his 2008 film Australia. “He put his heart and soul and years of effort into that movie and just believed in it so much,” Fantauzzo said. “Whether people embraced it or not, the anxiety was about just putting it out there, which is something I think most creative people understand.”

In a moment befitting one of the nation’s most successful directors, Luhrmann appeared at the announcement at Sydney’s State Library in a pre-recorded video.

“Vincent became a friend when he was painting (Brandon Walters), the young star of Australia,” Luhrmann said.

“I remember I was under incredible creative stress when he wanted to paint me, and I did this gesture of ‘what am I going to do?’ – which I don’t often show in my work because it’s not very confident. Of course, that would be the image Vincent chose.”

Fantauzzo took the Archibald Packing Room Prize this year for his portrait of chef Matt Moran.

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