Biography

Ana Kokkinos is an Australian director, screenwriter, and producer known for her work in both film and television. Her feature films, including Only the Brave, Head On, and Blessed, have received critical acclaim and recognition in Australian cinema.

In television, Kokkinos has directed episodes of notable series such as The Secret Life of Us and the AACTA-winning children's show Eugénie Sandler P.I. She has also directed episodes of Seven Types of Ambiguity, The Hunting, and Fires.

Most recently, Kokkinos worked on the BBC and STAN co-production Ten Pound Poms, which became the highest-rated new drama for the BBC in 2023. In 2024, she returned as co-executive producer and director for three episodes of the show's second series.
- IMDb mini biography by: Yellow Creative Management

Sex is part of what we do. To not explore it as a filmmaker is denying a whole part of ourselves.

The choices that are made about how sex is cinematically represented is very much a choice that is really to be determined between the filmmaker and the actors themselves. From my point of view as a filmmaker, as long as there is no abuse or exploitation in that, then essentially the filmmaker and actors have the right to explore the representation of those scenes in a truthful way.

On the one hand, we seem to be frightened of sex. And yet there's no questioning of the rampant violence that is depicted on screen.

I received a lot of offers to go to America after Head On. But I didn't become a filmmaker to go to Hollywood. I'm passionate about film and the possibility of telling stories important to me. I think Hollywood would be shocking. They have a completely different idea of what films are about.

Cinema still has the power to provoke a visceral response and it is the role of the artist to provoke and question. I want to go to the heart of the contemporary complacency. It's OK if it creates a fuss.