Nick
Simkins

about the jury

Prior to founding boutique production house cousin in Sept 2025, Nick Simkins was an Executive Producer at FINCH, Australia’s busiest production company. Over a 20-year career Nick has developed an exhaustive knowledge of his craft and has a proven track record when it comes to making dynamic and innovative work.

Since joining FINCH in 2020, the company won multiple Production Company of the Year awards including at CICLOPE Asia, Axis, SHOTS Asia Pacific (3 times), as well as AWARD Awards Production Company of the Year prize in 2025.

An Executive Producer and Producer creating work unbound by style or genre, Nick has collaborated with clients as varied as Telstra, Tourism Australia, Uber Eats, Asahi, and Air New Zealand.

Nick has worked on numerous award-winning non-traditional campaigns over his career, from a documentary about attempting to sponsor the White House for Vanish Napisan, to recording a Number 1 charting song with Ronan Keating for Air New Zealand. In 2022 he was a producer on The Reluctant Sea Shanty for UNHCR, the first film to feature real-life refugees singing sea shanties based on their experiences that launched through TikTok. It also picked up multiple awards at shows such as Cannes Lions, LIA, Spikes, Adfest, CICLOPE, and 1.4.

Nick began his career at the esteemed UK production house Partizan, before returning to Australia, where he freelance produced at numerous top production companies like Sweet Shop, EXIT Films and Division.

Prior to joining FINCH, Nick was Executive Producer at Jungle Entertainment.

With his wealth of experience, and a professional network which includes some of the world’s best creatives and directors, Nick is set to continue to make work to inspire and expand the industry.