The WIFT team are slowly recovering from a very enjoyable evening celebrating women changing the world one frame at a time. We were humbled to be in the company of such brilliant talent. The theatre was packed, the audience receptive, the laughs genuine and the frocks outstanding. The accolades have been pouring in via e-mail and twitter, for our winners especially, but also for those behind the scenes who got the show on the road in a matter of weeks rather than several months. Here are a selection of the general comments:
"Just wanted to say what a fabulous show you put on..."
"I had such a wonderful time, meeting new people..."
"Congratulations on an amazing evening!"
"Thank-you very much for your effort and work in putting together a great awards night last night."
An award winner wrote in saying:
"Thank you so much for the award, the great carefully considered BRILLIANT company I was in, and the memorable night out."
Someone in the industry commented:
"The success of last night's highly entertaining event is testament to the wonderfully creative and commercial screen production talent that WIFT New Zealand represents."
And this, from someone in Maori TV
"Thank you for finally making this a truly bi-cultural WIFT event."
An MP's perspective:-
"Well done on what was a superb event."
And from one of our interns who helped out on the night:
"Thank you so much for giving an opportunity to learn new things and to give us a platform to make a good start in our careers."
If you missed the fun and want to know what the fuss is all about, we had exceptional national media coverage. Check out:
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/tini-molyneux-honoured-awards-ceremony-3687263#
And for those for whom this kind of thing means something - we were also "Party of the Week" in the NZ Herald on Sunday's magazine supplement (although disappointingly not one photo of our winners was included).
A 16-page insert in the next Onfilm magazine is dedicated to the 2010 Awards, and is being mailed out to all WIFT members, including those who do not subscribe to the magazine, so keep a lookout for it in your mailbox.
A HUGE thank you to Debra Kelleher for being such a fantastic person to work with, to the WIFT Board for their never-ending support, to Nia for unselfishly giving so much of herself to WIFT, to our hard-working interns who sold masses of raffles, and to my children for putting up with an absent mother and so many takeaways these past weeks!
We are now planning to make next year's event even better, and have already started receiving approaches from organisations and businesses keen to be involved.
Finally, a special thank you to our sponsors and partners, to all those businesses who supported us in different ways, and of course our growing membership. We could not have done this without you!
Susi Newborn
Executive Director of WIFT NZ