Ana Kokkinos

Ana Kokkinos is an Australian film and television director and screenwriter of Greek descent. [1] She is known for her breakthrough feature film Head On (1998), and has directed television shows such as The Secret Life of Us and The Time of Our Lives.[2]

Ana Kokkinos
Born
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Occupation(s)Director, screenwriter
Years active1990s–present

The Guardian wrote: "Kokkinos's cinematic oeuvre is among the most hard-hitting bodies of work in Australian cinema."[3]

Early life and education

Kokkinos was born in Melbourne and before her career in film, she worked as an industrial lawyer.[1]

In 1991, she was accepted into the Victorian College of the Arts' graduate film and television programme.[4]

Career

Early work

Kokkinos' career began with Antamosi (1992), a short film she directed while in her first year of film school, which examines a migrant family's relationship told from the perspective of three generations of women.[2] Coming from a Greek immigrant family herself, Kokkinos's work often deals with themes of identity and family.[5]

Her next film was the 50-minute short feature Only the Brave (1994)s.[1] This film follows Alex as she helplessly watches her best friend Vicki fall victim to her self-destructive tendencies.[6]

1998 to 1999: Breakthrough with Head On

In Head On (1998), Kokkinos explores the relationship between the city and the individual.[3] Head On follows Greek-Australian teenager Ari as he wanders the streets of Melbourne, struggling with his identity as a gay male and the identity his family wishes to thrust upon him.[7]

Head On divided the Greek community in Australia. Kokkinos said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times].[8] Kokkinos said "what it did is that it opened up a dialogue between younger Greeks and their parents. What the film has done is that it has broken down barriers."[8]

The film was adapted from the novel Loaded, written by Christos Tsiolkas, and it received numerous awards, including Best First Feature in the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival as well as Best Film at the Milan International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.[1]

2000s to the present

Her next film The Book of Revelation (2006) was adapted form a novel of the same name written by Rupert Thomson. In The Book of Revelation, Daniel leaves his house to buy cigarettes but is abducted by three masked women who then subject him to physical and emotional abuse. The women also repeatedly rape Daniel. The Book of Revelation was nominated by the Australian Film Institute for Best Screenplay.[9]

Blessed (2009) deals with the relationship between mother and child, occurring during the span of 24 hours.[10] Blessed was nominated by the Australian Film Institute for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2009.[11]

In May 2022, the BBC and STAN commissioned Kokkinos to direct Ten Pound Poms, a drama about the British citizens who migrated to Australia after the Second World War.

Personal life

Kokkinos realized she was gay at the age of 15. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, she said "I went through a very long process of having to come to terms with that, and that wasn't easy, but I don't think it's easy for anyone". However, she rejects the tag "lesbian filmmaker", saying that she is able to represent all kinds of characters on screen.[8]

Selected filmography

See also

References
  1. "Ana Kokkinos". IMDb. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  2. "Ana Kokkinos". Senses of Cinema. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  3. Buckmaster, Luke (18 September 2014). "Head On rewatched – hot-blooded and hyper-styled social realism". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  4. "Interview Ana Kokkinos", Signet, 8 July 1999 accessed 19 November 2012
  5. "Ana Kokkinos, Director Profile • Senses of Cinema". sensesofcinema.com. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  6. Mandalis, Elena; Kaskanis, Dora; Davey, Maude; Athanasiadis, Helen (31 August 1994), Only the Brave, retrieved 23 January 2017
  7. "Wander Lust: Genre, Sexuality and Identity in Ana Kokkinos's Head On | Hardwick | Cultural Studies Review". epress.lib.uts.edu.au. doi:10.5130/csr.v15i1.2052. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  8. THOMAS, KEVIN (2 September 1999). "MOVIES : Collision With Life : Director looks at what it means to be Greek and Australian, gay and conflicted". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  9. "The Book of Revelation (2006)". IMDb.
  10. "Film review - Blessed (2009)". Cinema Autopsy. 8 September 2009. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  11. Kokkinos, Ana (10 September 2009), Blessed, retrieved 24 January 2016
  12. Ward, Sarah (2 February 2022). "'Here Out West': Review". Screen. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
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