Producer, Honorary Life Member of WIFT NZ
Producer Robin Laing is the founding president of WIFT NZ, and founding Chair of The New Zealand Film and Television School in Wellington. Awarded an MBE in 1993 for her services to the New Zealand film industry, Robin began producing films in 1985 with Mr Wrong, the first of many projects she worked on with director Gaylene Preston.
Her slate of feature films went on to include Preston's comedy Ruby and Rata (1990) her thriller Perfect Strangers (2003), and her documentary Bread & Roses about social activist and politician Sonja Davies, for television. Robin was also part of the producing team on Preston's documentary War Stories Our Mothers Never Told Us and Niki Caro's adaptation of The Vintner's Luck (2009).
In 2018, alongside first-time director Rebecca Tansley, Robin produced The Heart Dances. The feature-length documentary followed the creation of a ballet based on movie The Piano. Laing went on to co-produce Poppy, directed by Linda Niccol, which follows a car-mad teenager keen for independence and a shot at love. Released in 2021, it's the first Kiwi feature to cast an actor (Libby Hunsdale) with Down syndrome in the starring role.
Robin received the WIFT Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Film Industry in 2008