Anna Koukouli Born is a bicoastal writer-director splitting her time between NY and LA.
She explores women's stories, dysfunctional families, unbearable workplaces, social inequality and climate-caused disasters set in the near future. Born and raised in Athens, Greece, she draws from her Greek history and heritage, she loves allegorical cautionary tales of strong tragic characters trying to overcome the adversity of the world around them and inside their heads in the dark hour of the soul. Sometimes they’re absolved. Sometimes they come down crushing.
She’s also obsessed with women rights and gender parity. Her humor is darker than yours. She bets on it.
Anna studied Story Analysis and TV Development at UCLA Extension and holds a BA (Hons) Marketing and an MBA from British Universities of Lincoln and Liverpool, respectively.
Anna’s first short film APPRAISAL has screened at the 23rd Beverly Hills Film Festival and Santa Barbara International Shorts Film Fest.
ANGEL is currently in the film festival circuit, while a third film of hers “Don’t Forget To Brush Your Hair” is in post.
At 30 days old - I traveled from Athens to Hamburg to meet my dad. Well, my mother did the travel arrangements.
My father wanted me to be a piano teacher. I wanted to be a photographer. I ended up writing and directing for the screen by way of advertising.
Best Moment of my whole career so far: Avoided to fall off stage right after I was handed a Golden Euro Effie in front of 700 people. No biggie, just the Golden Globes of Advertising.
(Oscars equivalent would be Cannes Lions, in case you were wondering)
Most overused phrase of my career: We’ll fix it in post.
Most recurrent dreadful moment of my career: opening a rejection letter hurts every single time. Especially for script contests.
Quotes
"Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you." - Carl Jung.
We're all living in our personal utopias within a grand dystopia.