Leading Australian filmmaker turned mainstream Hollywood director, Noyce began making short films and documentaries in the late 1960s and gained attention when he won the Australian Film Industry (AFI) award for best short film. He directed documentary short subjects for Film Australia while working on his first feature, "Backroads" (1977). Noyce became a prominent director in the Australian film industry when his feature "Newsfront" (1978), which he also co-wrote, garnered three AFI awards for Best Feature, Director, and Original Screenplay.

Noyce's next feature, "Heatwave" (1981), starring a then unknown Judy Davis, was another critical success. He continued to make films in Australia until Hollywood beckoned, after seeing his accomplished work on "Dead Calm" (1989). Produced by George Miller, this seagoing thriller starred Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman, and Billy Zane. Noyce made an inauspicious American debut with "Blind Fury" (1989), starring Rutger Hauer as a blind Vietnam vet who is improbably adept with swords and other low-tech tools for maiming. Noyce rebounded with a major popular success, "Patriot Games" (1992). Starring Harrison Ford, this was the second installment of the Jack Ryan franchise derived from Tom Clancy's immensely popular espionage novels. Noyce followed up with "Sliver" (1993), a routine psychosexual thriller with Sharon Stone, and rejoined the Ford money train, directing the "Patriot Games" follow-up "Clear and Present Danger" (1994). In 1997, he steered Val Kilmer and Elisabeth Shue in the big screen remake of "The Saint" and had a mild hit with the thriller "Bone Collector" (1998) starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. But Noyce grew restless as a journeyman director of Hollywood fare and turned his attentions back to his more independent roots, a gambit that paid off handsomely in 2002 when two of his films were released nearly simultaneously. He received tremendous critical praise for his screen adaptation of Graham Greene's "The Quiet American," which starred Brendan Fraser and, in a performance that generated terrific awards buzz, Michael Caine. Equally well-received was "Rabbit-Proof Fence," the true story of the epic journey of three Aboriginal girls in 1930s Australia.