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Following is NZFC CEO Dave Gibson's speech delivered on Sunday 28 September 2014 at the Big Screen Symposium in Auckland. Challenges and Changes:  The challenges facing the film industry today and introducing changes the NZFC is planning Earlier...

Kia hiwa ra! Kia hiwa ra! Kia hiwa rā ki tēnēi tuku, kia hiwa rā ki tērā tuku, kia tū kia mātara! Congratulations to the three teams selected to receive funding from the inaugural He Ara development scheme: Blacklands - $50,000 Blacklands...

Director’s Notes – Veialu Aila-Unsworth “I have eaten many a hot meal off this plate design - either at my Great Aunt’s or during a student-flat dinner. It still makes me laugh to think that such an elegant plate, with such a...

In his new movie, Spooked, Geoff Murphy takes an intriguing series of events from 1992 New Zealand as his starting point and, making a daring imaginative jump, spins it to where all good 21st century conspiracies lead – Osama Bin Laden and the CIA...

Director’s Notes - Nancy Brunning In 2004 I read an early draft of Journey to Ihipa. I said to myself, if I were a filmmaker, I’d want to direct this one. I had directed for theatre before but never for film, and what was important to me at...

DIRECTOR’S NOTES "To date, old New Zealand has been portrayed in cinema as a dark and cold land of deep foreboding; the final frontier, a savage place of no return. My aim was to show ancient Aotearoa as a green, and heat filled land full of...

Teenagers Zig and Jaffa get totally wasted, and as always take the broken path from the house to Jaffa’s shed to play Redemption. They have discovered a way to take the violence and pain in their young lives and transform it into pleasure, healing...

The boy’s anxiety is further increased by his mother’s self-absorption in the break up of her marriage and her hurried return home. But it seems that there are stronger powers at play.  This young boy has a gift, a gift of ‘seeing...

Celebrating their half century this year (2009), the Topp Twins have attained a unique status within New Zealand culture, and their fans range from hard core political activists, to sheep farmers and 'Ladies who Lunch'. Their ability to relate to...

DIRECTOR’S NOTES - Ainsley Gardiner The word ‘mokopuna’ has two meanings in the Māori language. Firstly, it is the physical reflection of your face, secondly it is the word for grandchild or descendent. It suggests that we are a...

Auckland based filmmakers Miriam Smith & Christopher Pryor lived and filmed in Jerusalem for a year, spanning 2010/2011.  How Far is Heaven follows the journey of Sister Margaret Mary, the newest Sister to Jerusalem, who is a regular volunteer...

The Most Fun You Can Have Dying is a debut feature for both writer/director Kirstin Marcon and producer Alex Cole-Baker. The film is based on the well-reviewed 2003 debut novel ‘Seraphim Blues’, written by Steven Gannaway. The film...

Set almost entirely in a petrol station, Fantail was shot on location in South Auckland, New Zealand. Fantail is the passion project of director Curtis Vowell, producer Sarah Cook and writer/actress Sophie Henderson.  It was funded through the New...

Like the Anzacs 100 years ago Sam Neill journeys across oceans, seeking an answer to why a legend was born in Turkey on 25 April, 1915. Why our two island nations, separated by sea, still celebrate a botched military expedition. Submerging...

From the author of Whale Rider, the screenwriter of Master and Commander and the producer and director of Once Were Warriors comes a profound and enduring tale of rural family life.

Every culture has its stories and its heroes. For us, the men of the 28 (Māori) Battalion are legendary. These were soldiers who owed no allegiance to a flag but fought and died in their thousands because they were warriors at heart. When they fought...

DIRECTOR’S NOTES -SUMMER AGNEW “In any culture a tangi (funeral) reminds us that the relationship between life and death is intricate. A tangi is when the living and the dead come together equally, in the whare nui (meeting house) to ensure...

Kiri, an overweight Māori woman, takes a trip to the Whakatiki River where she spent many summers as a girl. With her goes her husband Dan, his friend Seb and beautiful newcomer, Josie. The place awakens powerful memories for Kiri, and as...

A state of political unrest prevails in New Zealand - with strikes, riots and rationing. The Prime Minister has set up an anti-terrorist force of "Specials" - supposedly to restore law and order. Smith (SAM NEILL) is too busy with his...

Director’s Notes - Te Arepa Kahi FORESHORE AND SEABED 2005 in New Zealand was election year. The National party had been making little traction on Labour’s command of Government for some time, but in election year, tactics and...

Poi E is the latest chapter in director/writer Tearepa Kahi’s exploration of New Zealand’s musical history. His first film, Mt Zion, was a fictional story inspired by his musician father and his whānau in the 1980s. This film is the true...

River Queen is an original story by director Vincent Ward (Vigil, The Navigator, What Dreams May Come), who wrote the screenplay with Toa Fraser (Bare, No 2).    The film stars double Academy Award-nominated Samantha Morton (In...

THE TATTOOIST was made by Singaporean and New Zealand co-production partners, from a New Zealand-originated script on locations in New Zealand and Singapore. The story centres on Samoan spiritual beliefs, in which the barrier between our world and the...

It's 1903: South African farmer Arjan can Diemen has lost everything - his wife, children, farm and home - in the brutal Boer War in which he fought against the colonising British.  Arriving in New Zealand, he is immediately hired by Major...

Producer Desray Armstrong is this year’s recipient of Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga New Zealand Film Commission’s Te Aupounamu  Māori Screen Excellence Award.   Awarded by nominations from their peers,...

Kimi lives inthe country with her grandmother and her Uncle Tau. One day at the end of summer, the big bus from the city gobbles up Uncle Tau and takes him away. Before he leaves, he promises to return when the watermelon is fully grown. The...

Director’s Notes - Peter Burger "In this film I wanted to capture the complexity of the idea of turangawaewae. For those Māori today, who no longer live in the place where their ancestors have lived for centuries, it becomes important to...

DIRECTOR’S NOTES - Michael Bennett “Making Kerosene Creek was both a great honour and a significant challenge for me. As a Māori writer and director, this film provided a unique opportunity to explore one of the most significant...

Havana Rose Liu as Darby in No Exit. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved. Fast Facts 300+ New Zealand crew 40 shooting days 700+ Weta Digital VFX 20+ New Zealand extras...

The terms of reference for the NZFC's Diversity and Inclusion Committee

(L-R) Owen Campbell, Brittany Snow, Mia Goth, Scott Mescudi, Jenna Ortega. Photo Credit: Christopher Moss. 200+ New Zealand crew 6 New Zealand cast Shot on location in Whanganui, Otaki, Foxton and...

With its diverse landscape and being home to a talented group of filmmakers and storytellers, Rotorua is today celebrating its role as the lead location in Kiwi film Cousins. The film releases in nationwide cinemas today, following the world premiere in...

Gaysorn Thavat’s debut feature, The Justice of Bunny King, will have its World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in the Viewpoints section where it will compete for the Nora Ephron Award for Best Female Filmmaker, and for the Best New Narrative...

Severe, pale-eyed, handsome, Phil Burbank is brutally beguiling. All of Phil’s romance, power and fragility is trapped in the past and in the land: He can castrate a bull calf with two swift slashes of his knife; he swims naked in the river, smearing his...

Cowboy Bebop is an action-packed space Western about three bounty hunters, aka “cowboys,” all trying to outrun the past. As different as they are deadly, Spike Spiegel (John Cho), Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir), and Faye Valentine (Daniella Pineda) form a...