At 13, Thornton was sent to boarding school,Salvado College, in Australia's only monastic town,New Norcia, Western Australia,[2][3] although he later declared he became angry with Christianity and did not consider himself religious.[4][5][6]
He describes his decision to become a filmmaker in an interview in 2007:
Where I grew up in Alice I was a DJ for a radio station (CAAMA). The station began a film unit and so I watched people pack cameras and equipment into cars and take off to make films. I was alone at the radio station and I thought that I really wanted to go with them. That's how it started, I made a film calledGreen Bush which is basically about that time. Eventually I went toAFTRS in Sydney and got really involved as a Director of Photography.[7]
Thornton shared a personal as well as professional relationship withBeck Cole, and along with producerKath Shelper called themselves "the trinity", working together from 2004.[11]
In 2009 Thornton wrote, directed and shot his first feature filmSamson & Delilah, which won awards including theCamera d’Or for best first feature film at the2009 Cannes Film Festival. The following year he filmed the documentary seriesArt + Soul about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, which was written and narrated by curatorHetti Perkins.[1] The installationMother Courage (inspired byBertolt Brecht's 1939 character) was commissioned bydOCUMENTA andACMI, and first exhibited in 2012.[1]
In 2020 he directed a six-part documentary series calledThe Beach (2020), about himself in isolation on a beach on the remoteDampier Peninsula. The film was shot by his sonDylan River.[19]
In 2025, Thornton worked with the Westerman Jilya Institute for Indigenous Mental Health, founded by psychologist Tracy Westerman, to make a film about Aboriginal mental health, for their initiative called "Change Direction", which was launched nationwide in the lead-up toNational Reconciliation Week in May 2025. ActorPedrea Jackson featured in the film.[24]
His 2025 film,Wolfram, premiered on the closing night of theAdelaide Film Festival on 26 October 2025. Based on a real story and set in 1932, the film starsDeborah Mailman as a mother longing for the return of herstolen children. It is a sequel toSweet Country, and features some of the same characters.[25] Thornton served as director andcinematographer on the film.[25]Wolfram looks at the exploitation of First Nations child labour.[26][27]
In 2020 Thornton was co-presenter, withBeck Cole, of a five-day development workshop called the Aboriginal Short Film Initiative, held atSouth Australian Film Corporation's Adelaide Studios.[28]
Thornton was formerly married to filmmakerBeck Cole, whom he met in 1999.[5] They have a daughter, Luka May,[31][5] an actress also known asLuka Magdeline Cole or Luka May Glynn-Cole.[32] The couple shared a personal as well as professional relationship (see above).[11] By 2018 Thornton and Cole had separated.[33]
Thornton also has a son,Dylan River, who is a filmmaker who has worked with his father.[34]
He also has another daughter,Rona Glynn-McDonald, whose mother is producerPenelope McDonald,[35] principal of Chili Films.[36] Glynn-McDonald is the founding CEO of Common Ground, an organisation focused onreconciliation, and co-founder of First Nations Futures.[37] In 2019 she filmed a series of short films called "Bedtime Stories", based onDreamtime stories. The films were produced by her mother, while her father and brother also assisted.[38] In the same year, she won theDiana Award for her work in "creating and sustaining positive change for Australia, primarily through sharing stories of First Nations people to a wide audience across Australia".[39] As of 2024[update] Glynn-McDonald is in a relationship with AFL player and TV personalityTony Armstrong.[37]
Thornton lives in Alice Springs, which, he says gives him "strength and energy".[23]
CriticDavid Stratton describes Thornton as "one of our greatest filmmakers", whileCate Blanchett calls him "the most brilliant visual storyteller".[23]
Author and broadcasterVirginia Trioli writes that Thornton's work is "driven by his emotional and intellectual response to the historical dispossession and contemporary despair of his people", using his films to tell stories with the minimum of dialogue.[23]
In 2009, Thorton was named Northern Territorian of the Year[40]
