Rachel Perkins

Rachel Perkins (born 1970) is an Australian film and television director, producer, and screenwriter. She directed the films Radiance (1998), One Night the Moon (2001), Bran Nue Dae (2010), and Jasper Jones (2017). Perkins is an Arrernte and Kalkadoon woman from Central Australia, who was raised in Canberra. She is the daughter of Aboriginal activist Charles Perkins and his wife Eileen.

Early life and education
Perkins was born in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory in 1970. She is the daughter of Charlie Perkins, granddaughter of Hetty Perkins, and has Arrernte, Kalkadoon, Irish, and German ancestry. Her siblings are Adam and Hetti Perkins, an art curator, and her niece is actress Madeleine Madden. She and her sister attended Melrose High School.

At the age of 18, Perkins moved to Alice Springs and entered into a traineeship at the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association.

Career
In 1992, Perkins founded Blackfella Films, a documentary and narrative production company creating distinctive Australian content for television, live theatre, and online platforms, with a particular focus on Indigenous Australian stories. Its productions have included multi-award winning seven-part documentary series First Australians, television film Mabo, and TV series Redfern Now.

She served as Commissioner with the Australian Film Commission from 2004 to 2008, and since 2009 has been on the board of Screen Australia.

She was also curator for the 2009 Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival. This tenth anniversary of the festival held at the Sydney Opera House featured the premiere of Fire Talker, a documentary film about her father Charlie Perkins by Australian filmmaker Ivan Sen.

Since 2015, Perkins has been the president of the AIATSIS Foundation, which is part of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.

She has continued to make award-winning films and TV series (see below).

In 2019, she was invited to give the ABC's annual Boyer Lecture, which she titled The End of Silence, and broadcast on ABC RN in November and available as a podcast.

Personal life
Perkins has a son with her ex-husband, filmmaker Richard McGrath.

Selected filmography

 * Blood Brothers (film series) (1993) – producer, director, writer
 * Radiance (1998) – director
 * One Night the Moon (2001) – director, writer
 * Flat (2002) – producer
 * Mimi (2002) – producer
 * First Australians (2008) – producer, director, writer, narrator
 * Bran Nue Dae (2010) – director, writer
 * Mabo (2012) – director
 * Black Panther Woman (2014) – director
 * First Contact (2014) – producer
 * Jasper Jones (2017) – director
 * The Prospector (TBD) – director
 * Mystery Road (2019 & 2020) TV series
 * Total Control (2019) TV series
 *  The Australian Wars  (2022), a three-part documentary series about the Australian frontier wars on SBS Television – director, producer and presenter

Awards
Australian Film Institute Australian Writers' Guild Canberra International Film Festival Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards IF Awards Melbourne International Film Festival New York International Independent Film & Video Festival AACTA Awards Australian Directors' Guild Awards Tudawali Film and Video Awards New South Wales Premier's History Awards
 * 1998 – AFI Award Best Achievement in Direction: Radiance (1998) (nominated)
 * 2002 – Byron Kennedy Award
 * 2001 – Awgie Award Television – Television Original: One Night the Moon (2001)
 * 2001 – Major Award: One Night the Moon (2001)
 * 1998 – Audience Award: Radiance (1998)
 * 2002 – Special Achievement Award: One Night the Moon (2001)
 * 2001 – IF Award Best Direction: One Night the Moon (2001) (nominated)
 * 1998 – Most Popular Feature Film: Radiance (1998)
 * 2001 – Genre Award Best Feature Film – Musical: One Night the Moon (2001)
 * 2019 – Best Television Drama
 * 2019 – Best director in a television drama series, for Mystery Road, Series 1
 * 1994 – The Tudawali Award: Blood Brothers (1993)
 * 2000 – Best direction: Radiance (1998)
 * 2023 – Winner (with Darren Dale, Jacob Hickey and Don Watson), Digital History Prize: The Australian Wars, Episode 1