Anna Valdez Hanks

Anna began working in the film industry 11 years ago, beginning as a camera trainee, then later as a clapper loader and focus puller. Her short films have won awards and been screened at international festivals, with 2012’s Goblin Market, which she also co-wrote and produced, being exhibited at Tate Britain and the Pushkin Gallery in Moscow. Anna provided additional cinematography on Pete Travis’s film Endgame, and was Focus Puller on the BAFTA-winning series The Village for Antonia Bird, and B Camera Operator on Nick Murphy’s Occupation. Anna is currently working on a series of four short story adaptations for SkyArts directed by Adrian Shergold, and is in discussions about two feature films.

Anna says: “For a long time, I was working as an assistant trying to move up to director of photography. It felt really difficult to get that long-form credit as a DOP. When I finally got it I thought I’d made it, but it soon dawned on me that now the real work begins. There are so many talented people trying to become a DOP, you have to really be passionate about it. It feels fantastic to be named as a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit. It has given me a renewed desire to work harder and to strive to find projects that I find more personally important. I’m most looking forward to meeting other cinematographers and film makers.”