Kick Pictures

Scripted series · Non-scripted series · Feature films · Documentaries · Verticals · Branded content

Powerful Storytelling, utilising the latest technologies including ethical AI, by actual filmmakers

Kick Pictures is the writing and directing home of Sarah Spillane, acclaimed Australian-born filmmaker based in Los Angeles, who has partnered with Visual Effects and AI specialist Igor Martins to create powerful, innovative stories across multiple platforms for some of the film industry’s leading studios.

Selected Work

Netflix · 2023 · Feature

True Spirit

The true story of 16-year-old Jessica Watson's solo voyage around the world — a teenager defying every doubt to cross an ocean alone. Written and directed by Sarah Spillane.

Australian title, Netflix 2023

countries in the Top 10

56.7M

hours viewed

globally, Netflix 2023

Feature Film · 2013

Around the Block

People on the margins fighting to be seen. Starring Christina Ricci, Ruby Rose and Hunter Page-Lochard. Premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Winner — Australian Directors Guild Award for Outstanding Achievement in Direction.

Sarah Spillane — Earlier Work

This Life TV Series · Director & Writer

The Apology 2008 · Director & Writer

Australian Tails Director & Writer

The Manual Director & Writer

Kris Cross Director & Writer

About

Sarah Spillane is a writer-director known for True Spirit (2023), Around the Block (2013), and The Apology (2008).

She grew up in Sydney, Australia, worked at the BBC in London, and relocated to Los Angeles in 2009. Working across film and television, her work centres on the pursuit of freedom in true, character-driven stories — finding the human pulse inside real events and carrying it to a global audience.

Her debut feature, Around the Block, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013 and earned her several awards, including the Australian Directors Guild Award for Outstanding Achievement in Direction (2014). Her most recent film, the Netflix action-adventure True Spirit, released theatrically in January 2023 before peaking at #2 globally on Netflix and remaining in the Top 10 for several weeks — becoming the most-watched Australian title on the platform that year.

Force · Swagger · Authorship

Contact

Kicking Down Doors

sarah@kickpictures.com

IMDb Sarah Spillane