Filmmaker wins landmark case to be acknowledged as ‘principal director’

A judge has decreed that all versions of Never Get Busted!, an Australian documentary at the centre of a bitter dispute between two men who each claimed to be the principal director, must carry the credit “directed by Stephen McCallum”.

The Federal Court ruling represents a resounding victory for McCallum in the years-long row over filmmaking credits that has included skirmishes at the Sundance Film Festival and Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF).

In orders handed down last week, Justice Yaseen Shariff decreed that all versions of the film must carry the credit “directed by Stephen McCallum” in such a way that it is clear he was its principal director.

Shariff also declared that producer David Ngo is to be prohibited from identifying himself in any way that suggests he was its principal director.

Projector Films, the production company run by Ngo and his business partner Daniel Joyce, must pay McCallum $25,000, the outstanding portion of his fee for the film on which he worked over a period of four years before being sidelined from the project in 2023.

In a concession to Ngo’s argument that he exercised significant authorial control over the film about Barry Cooper, a former US drug cop turned pro-drug activist, the judge ruled that Ngo can be identified “with the term ‘director’ provided [that]… a credit reading ‘directed by Stephen McCallum’ [is] the last directing credit card before the title at the beginning of the documentary [and] the first directing credit card after the fade-out at the end”.

In the conventions of filmmaking credits, those positions make it clear that McCallum is the principal director of the film.

The orders follow Shariff’s decision in favour of McCallum in February. In his 284-page ruling, the judge wrote “I am satisfied that Mr McCallum is the sole principal director of the documentary,” adding “while I am satisfied that Mr Ngo is a director of the documentary, I am not satisfied that he is a principal director”.

Shariff found in February that Projector Films had engaged in deceptive and misleading conduct, had breached McCallum’s moral rights, and had breached its director’s agreement with him. Friday’s orders set out the remedies Ngo and Projector must make in response to those findings.

The case is a rare instance of a credit dispute – which is not an uncommon occurrence in the screen industry – making it to court.

Australian Directors Guild president Darren Ashton hailed the result as significant for not only recognising the role of the director but also because it sends “a clear message to producers who try to make false or misleading claims in relation to the creation and execution of a film or TV program that they will be exposed and that the director’s moral rights in the films they direct cannot be waived.

“Credit creep is an increasing element of contemporary filmmaking, no question,” Ashton said. “There are projects where there are more executive producers than cast.” The ruling would, he said, “make those seeking credits outside the accepted industry standard and/or contracted agreement more unlikely. It will stop those who are essentially ‘credit grabbing’ – that’s the truth of it.”

McCallum was hired to work on the project, originally envisaged as a three- or four-episode series, in late 2019. Last August he told this masthead: “I directed all of the 30-plus interviews in Never Get Busted!, which were conducted over four years, all over the world. Every time I was the sole director. David Ngo was a producer on set, who handled the audio and data wrangling. To my knowledge there are no interviews that have been directed by David Ngo in Never Get Busted!”

In late 2023, the relationship between McCallum and Ngo broke down to such a degree that McCallum was locked out of the edit.

As Ngo wrested control of the project from McCallum, the credits evolved. In January 2024, Ngo was listed on imdb.com as McCallum’s co-director for the first time. At various stages, he would be listed as sole director, principal director, co-director (with McCallum), and even as showrunner, alongside his partner, Erin Williams-Weir.

As the trial heard, that became a bit much even for Ngo’s colleague, Daniel Joyce.

“It starts to look like a credits grab to anyone outside of the team, and even knowing how much you’ve led the creative, I even think it’s OTT,” Joyce wrote to Ngo in an email that was read out in court. “Pick a credit. Don’t go for them all.”

In December 2024, Never Get Busted! was announced as part of the Sundance Film Festival line-up, with no director identified. When McCallum wrote to Sundance to point out that he was the director, he was told the festival did not get involved in credit disputes. He filed a claim that month in the Federal Court alleging his right of attribution had been infringed.

When the film premiered at the festival in January 2025, it was billed as “the debut feature from David Ngo”. McCallum’s name was missing. McCallum flew to the US, intending to attend the premiere of the film he had directed but as he stood in line to enter the cinema, security staff approached him and ordered him to leave.

Back in Australia, attempts at mediation failed and the case proceeded to trial.

The film was slated to make its Australian debut at MIFF in August 2025, with Ngo to appear in a Q&A session. Days before that event, Justice Shariff handed down an interim ruling that Ngo could not be credited as the film’s director. The MIFF screening went ahead, but the Q&A session did not.

Now, with only damages and costs still to be determined, McCallum says he feels vindicated in his decision to fight for fair credit.

“This an important ruling, not just for me, but for all Australian directors and filmmakers to ensure we are correctly attributed. This has been an incredibly challenging time for myself and my family, but I would 100 per cent do it again to ensure rights of our artists are protected.”

McCallum said the excision of his name from the credits at Sundance was the spur to his taking legal action.

“I was put in a situation where my ‘Directed By’ credit had been deliberately excluded from one of the biggest film festivals in the world on a project that I had been the principal director on for over four years. I had no choice but to fight for my rights to be correctly attributed.”

Despite the judgment coming down heavily in McCallum’s favour, David Ngo says he feels vindicated too.

“Having dedicated more than six years to this project, I am pleased that the court has formally recognised my status as a director,” he told this masthead.

The judge did acknowledge the important role Ngo played in making Never Get Busted!, while making it clear that this did not make him the film’s principal director.

“I accept that Mr Ngo has had a unique role in the making of the documentary,” Shariff wrote in his judgment in February. “Together with Ms Williams-Weir, Mr Ngo conceived the idea of making the documentary. As a creator of the idea, it followed that Mr Ngo had a vision as to what the documentary would entail in conveying the story of Mr Cooper’s life … through [his] various roles as creator, producer, writer, and editor, Mr Ngo not only had input into various aspects of the creative process but undertook important aspects of the creative work. In this sense, it is understandable that Mr Ngo thinks that he is the creative force of the documentary.”

Nonetheless, Sharif added, “it is necessary to observe that Mr Ngo is partly to blame for his predicament”, describing him as a “man keen to receive public adulation and recognition as the primary creative force of the documentary”.

The judge described Ngo as an “unsatisfactory witness” who was “keen to convey misleading impressions to the court [and] prepared to ‘spin’ things to suit his own interests”.

For McCallum, the point was never to disavow Ngo’s contributions. It was simply to ensure he was credited for the work he had done, not erased from it.

“This case was never about who is the ‘auteur’ of the film,” he says. “David Ngo and I were a creative team on Never Get Busted! My role since inception was principal director, David’s was producer and writer.

“I have always collaborated with writers and producers on projects,” he adds. “That collaboration doesn’t mean that I am a producer any more than my writer/producer collaborators are directors.”

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