Hillcoat was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia on 14 August 1961, and grew up in North America and Europe.[1] He attended Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary School in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and was enrolled in its Special Art Program. As a child, his paintings were featured in the Art Gallery of Hamilton. He was active with the McMaster University Film Board, most notably producing an animated short titled The Finger.
Back in Australia by the late 1970s, aged 18, Hillcoat studied film at the Swinburne University of Technology, in Melbourne. He became immersed in the city's post-punk scene, through which he met his now wife, the photographer Polly Borland, and began a lifelong creative collaboration with Nick Cave, editing the music video for his band The Birthday Party's single "Nick the Stripper" (1981). Hillcoat also got a job filming concerts at the famed Melbourne post-punk venue the Crystal Ballroom.[2]
