Michael Gudinski’s Career to Be Immortalized In ‘Ego’ Doc: Watch the Trailer

The incredible career of the late Australian impresario Michael Gudinski will be retold in a major new documentary.

Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story will roll out at theaters across Australia from Aug. 31, following its premiere Aug. 10 at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) — the music man’s beloved home city.

MIFF pitches the film as “a uniquely Australian tribute to a much-loved industry legend.”

Helmed by Paul Goldman (Such is Life: The Troubled Times of Ben Cousins), Ego will tell MG’s tale with never-before-seen archive footage, and interviews with the likes of Jimmy Barnes, Vika & Linda Bull, Garbage, Dave Grohl, Vance Joy, Paul Kelly, Kylie Minogue, Mark Seymour, Ed Sheeran, Bruce Springsteen and Sting.

“Famed for his eccentricities and boldness,” reads a statement (May 23) unveiling the new project, Ego “dives into the psyche and unorthodox tactics of Michael as he became the frontman of a cultural movement and built a music empire whose artists created the soundtrack for a nation.”

The project is timed to drop as Gudinski’s Mushroom Group celebrates its 50 year anniversary, a party that will include a “major live event.”

Now led by MG’s son, Matt Gudinski, the independent music powerhouse is home to some two-dozen companies, active in every conceivable area of the music industry, including Mushroom Music Publishing, the country’s leading independent publisher; labels I Oh You, Liberation and Bloodlines; and the concert promotion juggernaut Frontier Touring.

The larger than life entrepreneur passed March 2, 2021, aged 68, a shock that triggered a wave of tributes from across the music world. Many of those starry friends and extended “Mushroom family” appear in the film, the trailer for which can be seen below.

“He had the energy of a rock drummer,” recounts Sting. Adds Foo Fighter Grohl, “I imagine being a rock promoter as the biggest fucking nightmare. There has to be a reason why he did it.”

Following his death, Gudinski was feted with the No. 1 spot in Billboard’s International Power Players list, and a statue of the great man was erected outside Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena, depicting MG with his familiar No. 1 hand gesture.

Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story is a Mushroom Studios production, with principal production funding from Screen Australia in association with VicScreen. It’s financed with support from the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA). Local distribution and international sales are handled by Mushroom Studios.