sentences:  Michael 'retired' from graphic design in 1994, relocating to Sydney to study for a BA in Film at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS).In his first year as an undergraduate the screenrights to his novella "The Existentialist Cowboy's Last Stand" were bought and it was made into one of Australia's most successful short films of the 1990s, along the way earning Michael his first Australian Film Institute (AFI) nomination.The second came with the Russian language, space-race short, "Flying Over Mother" (1996), cementing his reputation as an original screenwriter/director with a global audience.