Introduction
Bridget Ikin is a New Zealand film producer who has lived and worked in Australia since 1990.
Early life and education
Ikin was born in Lower Hutt, New Zealand. She took a BA in English literature from the University of Auckland, followed by an MA from London University.
Career
Ikin opened her film production company, Hibiscus Films, in the early 1980s in New Zealand. She was a member of NZ Women in Film and Television, lobbying for support for women filmmakers.
She moved to Australia in 1990. From 1996 to 2000, as head of SBS Independent she commissioned more than 400 hours of programming. She served as feature film evaluation manager at the Film Finance Corporation (now Screen Australia) from 2005 to 2006 and was a board member of the South Australian Film Corporation for many years from 2007. In 2011 Ikin and her partner John Maynard formed Felix Media a specialist production company that focusses on feature films made by visual artists and media environments such as Angelica Mesiti’s installation at the 2019 Venice Biennale 2019.
Ikin is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Filmography
- Talkback (1988) – producer
- Kitchen Sink (1989) – producer
- An Angel at My Table (1990) – producer
- Crush (1992) – producer
- Loaded (1994) – producer
- Floating Life (1996) – producer
- Walking on Water (2002) – executive producer
- The Tracker (2002) – executive producer
- Australian Rules (2002) – executive producer
- Look Both Ways (2005) – producer
- My Year Without Sex (2009) – producer
- Art + Soul (2010) documentary series – producer
- Sherpa (2015) – producer
- The Rehearsal (2016) – producer
- The Woman and the Car (2018) – producer
- It All Started With a Stale Sandwich (2019) – executive producer
Awards and recognition
Ikin was awarded an honorary Doctor of Arts by the Australian Film and Television School in 2018.
| Year | Nominated Work | Prize | Awards | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | An Angel at My Table | Best Film | New Zealand Film Awards | |
| International Critics' Award | Toronto International Film Festival | |||
| Grand Special Jury Prize (second prize), the Elvira Notari Prize, Agis Scuola Prize, and the OCIC Catholic award | Venice Film Festival | |||
| 1992 | Best Foreign Film | Independent Spirit Awards | ||
| 2005 | Look Both Ways | Best Film | 2005 Australian Film Institute Awards | |
| 2015 | Sherpa | Grierson Award for Documentary Film | London Film Festival | |
| 2016 | Best Feature Documentary | Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards | ||
| 2017 | Best Documentary | Australian Film Critics Association of Australia |