Bridget Ikin

Bridget Ikin was born in Lower Hutt, in 1954, and grew up in New Zealand. She graduated from Auckland University with an English degree, and later from London University with an MA in English 18th Century studies. She moved to Australia in 1990 and currently lives in Sydney.

Since the early 1980s she has been pivotal in producing some of the most interesting films and television made in New Zealand and Australia. She has consistently championed emerging  filmmakers with new vision.

In 1985 she co-produced, with partner John Maynard, the groundbreaking series, About Face. The series of short films for television introduced the work of writers Anne Kennedy, Peter Wells, and Stewart Main, as well as actors like Jennifer Ward-Lealand.

In 1989 Ikin produced Alison MacLean's seminal short film Kitchen Sink. The nightmare from the plughole competed at Cannes in 1989 and screened as part of UCLA Hammer Museum's retrospective of Sundance ‘stand outs'.

In 1990 Ikin co-produced (with Maynard) Jane Campion's widely acclaimed adaptation of writer Janet Frame's autobiography, An Angel At My Table, which won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1990.

Alison MacLean's debut feature Crush, a dark tale of simmering sexuality set amongst Rotorua's mud pools, screened in competition at Cannes in 1992.

Ikin co-produced Loaded, Anna Campion's 1995 debut feature, and has produced a large number of short films. In 1996 Ikin produced Clara Law's lyrical and evocative Floating Life which won the Silver Leopard at Locarno.

Ikin was the General Manager of Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) Australia,  from 1996 - 2000. She was responsible for more than 400 hours of programming which included: animation, documentary, drama, and feature films.

In 2002 she was associate director of the Adelaide Film Festival. That year, the festival commissioned four new feature films for which Ikin was executive producer: The Tracker, Australian Rules, Walking On Water, and Kabbarli.

Ikin, impressed by Australian writer/director Sarah Watt's animated short films, worked closely with Watt on her first feature, the stylistically innovative tragi-comedy Look Both Ways (2005). Look Both Ways won the Discovery Award at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival and several Australian Film Institute awards, including Best Film and Best Director.

Most recently Ikin has worked with Watt, on My Year Without Sex, which was released in 2009.