Archive Jun 2019

Jane Campion will be the Guest Selector for the New Zealand International Film Festival's (NZIFF) only competition strand, the New Zealand's Best short film competition. Six selected New Zealand shorts will premiere in Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin and Christchurch where audiences in Auckland and Well…

Good things come in small packages so here's the perfect festival offshore for your short film! The Smalls Film Festival is back for its 14th year, in Shoreditch from 6-9 September, with the very best in films, sessions and parties. On top of the usual…

Watch this space to find out more about a series of training sessions to be rolled out in the next few months by ScreenSafe and the Screen Women's Action Guild (SWAG). These are in preparation for updated health and safety standards for sexual harassment education, prevent…

If you weren't able to make it to SXSW and attend the Dear Producer panel, The truth about producing, you can now listen to the audio recording - and we recommend you do! Panelists Rebecca Green, Amanda Marshall, Kelly Williams, and Chris Ohlson discuss the…

A big shoutout to director Lisa Taouma and producer The Coconet TV for their performance at the Documentary Edge International Film Festival (Doc Edge). In the New Zealand Competition - Feature Documentary, Marks of Mana received a special mention and won Best New Zealand Cinematogr…

We're sure you know of some deserving women for this award and now is the time to get nominating! There are ten award categories - Arts & Culture, Board & Management, Business Enterprise, Community Hero, Diversity, Global, Innovation, Science & Health, Public Policy, Rural and…

Support a fellow Wifter on a filmmaking journey! Tanya Wheeler has written and co-produced (with Kahra Scott-James who's also on sound design) The Middle Wife, a ghost story set in 1910. A young wife who just wants her dead body to be buried, instead of…

Here's another hardworking Wifter who'd appreciate your support! Alyx Duncan is directing poet and actor Jess Holly-Bates and performance artist Forest (n�e Vicky) in an interdisciplinary work called Inheritance, programmed for Matariki Festival at Auckland's Basement Theatre 9-13 July. Duncan says the work ai…

We're thrilled to see director Prisca Bouchet's short film on the list of those selected as finalists for the New Zealand International Film Festival's annual New Zealand's Best Short Film Competition. Bouchet and co-director's Nick Mayow's Egg Cup Requiem was one of the six films…

Animation NOW! returns to Auckland for its fourth year where it will screen at Academy Cinemas on 9-11 August, the weekend immediately following the New Zealand International Film Festival. The programme for this stand- alone festival includes two animated shorts from New Zealand: Winter's Blight,…

Doc Edge Forum Wellington is fast approaching - don't miss this critical industry event! The Wellington Doc Edge Forum will offer three masterclasses from professional filmmakers from Australia, Canada and the USA who will share their creative and strategic approach to documentary filmmaking. Each masterc…

Archivist/SeniorArchivist - Kaiatawhai  
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Here's a great offer for WIFT members! Accounting service Beany, the latest discount provider to join the WIFT NZ family, will give WIFT members a special deal on its most popular package, the Beany Business Plus (normal price $175 excluding GST monthly, based on …

As Westside returns to our screens, let's go back to where it all began with the very first episode of Outrageous Fortune in 2005. Click here to watch the whole episode in five parts. And it was directed by a woman -Vanessa Alexander! Thank you…

The New Zealand Dance Company (NZDC), co-founded by our own Shona McCullagh, presents the premiere season of Matariki for Tamariki by accomplished New Zealand dancer and choreographer Sean MacDonald (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāi Tahu), as part of Auckland's Matariki Festival. Discover a world where…

A round of applause please, for two hardworking women recently honoured for their services to the screen and theatre industries. For her services to film, screenwriter and film producer Fran Walsh has been made a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit…

There are somthing like 400-plus shows* currently airing on TV or streaming services, so if you have a great show idea, let's just say there's competition! However, No Film School's Jason Hellerman has all the advice you need on mastering the TV show pitch, writing…

It's time to register for this year's WIFT International summit and The Power of Inclusion summit taking place October 2-4 in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Power of Inclusion is the first global summit of its kind in Asia Pacific, hosted by the New Zealand Film…

IndieWire asked a select handful of TV critics what they thought the best current, non-canceled show created by a woman or non-binary person.

Click here to check out what they said and see if you agree!

There are over nine million descendants of Polish Jews in the world. What is their connection to the land of their forefathers? The POLIN Museum is calling for proposals for short films that explore this question in creative ways. The 14 shortlisted films completed on…

Congratulations to these producer Wifters whose work will feature in this year's Ngā Whanaunga Māori Pasifika Shorts selection: Ngaire Fuata (Liliu), Desray Armstrong (Ways To See) and Lindsay Gough. Ngā Whanaunga is a collection of shorts from Aotearoa and the Pacific which will screen at…

We're thrilled to hear that Anna Marbrook's collaborative work Waka Odyssey was recently showcased at the Prague Quadrennial, along with work by other New Zealand artists. Thanks to funding from Creative New Zealand Marbrook and a collaborative team built the next phase of Waka Odyssey…

Check out NZOA's new Factual Roadmap which sets out its approach to allocating production funding through the Factual stream of the NZ Media Fund. The roadmap is effective from 1 July - so it will be applied to NZOA's consideration of Factual applications in…

Here's a treat for French New Wave film fans! The New Zealand International Film Festival is screening a retrospective celebrating the life and work of filmmaking pioneer Agn�s Varda. Varda's experimental features are seminal works of feminist cinema, French New Wave and neorealist filmm…

Screen industry workers will be looking forward to hearing the nitty-gritty details of how the new collective bargaining law will actually play out. The Government has announced it will introduce a new law to allow film industry workers to collectively bargain from next year,…

Radio New Zealand Commissioning Co-ordinator
Apply now - the deadline is 28 June!

Digitisation technician
Canterbury Museum

Creative producer
Creative Capital Arts Trust

Visual journalist
Radio New Zealand

Resources and production assistant
Kelston Deaf Education Centre

Visual content creator
Alliance…

The Fresh Shorts programme, a partnership between the NZFC and Script to Screen, offers grants of up to $15,000 to six new or emerging filmmaker teams to make a short film. As part of the Fresh Shorts development process, shortlisted teams of filmmakers will be suppo…

We have great news! For the first time ever, New Zealand submissions will be accepted at the Melbourne Women in Film Festival! Organisers of the festival's 2020 edition is calling for entries from New Zealand practitioners, and to be eligible, all films must ha…

A (slightly belated) shoutout to Sophie Henderson whose work Murder Club has been granted Seed Advanced Funding from the New Zealand Writers Guild in the first round for 2019. Take note: round two opens Friday 12 J…

Come one, come all to meet the New Zealand Film Commission leadership team! The NZFC is holding industry gatherings in Auckland, Wellington and Queenstown in June and July 2019 for a bit of schmoozing, a presentation and a Q & A.

Congratulations to Brigid Alkema and the team at Clemenger BBDO Wellington! Clemenger created one of two Kiwi ad campaigns which have gone through to the finals of the Gerety Awards in France - a new creative comp launched earlier this year. NZTA Belted Survivors …

Registration for @WCSFP's 2019 Congress is officially open! Held this year in Tokyo, Japan from December 2-5, #WCSFP19 is the place where science, history and natural history content creators and executives gather to share and explore future trends in factual production and distribution. Register be…

Fancy a dose of Shakespeare? We're giving away five double passes to director Claire McCarthy's take on Shakespeare's Hamlet. Set in the 14th century but spoken in a contemporary voice, Ophelia is a dynamic re-imagining of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Ophelia (Daisy Ridley) takes center stage as …

Entries to the annual New Zealand Cinematography Awards are now open! Run by the New Zealand Cinematographers Society, the Awards celebrate the art and craft of cinematography in New Zealand and honour the special skills and unique talents of those who create such exemplary …

We're heading to Amy Street for this week's Video Slot, to meet the fun-loving, theatrical Celeste, who spends her days surrounded by friends and flatmates. On the occasions where she needs some alone time, she enjoys setting herself up in her beautiful room, and watc…

Viv Kernick alerted us to a Q+A with her partner Kirsty Griffin, published on Design Assembly, about how Kirsty got into the industry and what keeps her rolling. Click here to read the interview
Meanwhile, the hardworking couple has just finished a 60-minute documentary called …

You don't have to be a woman over 50 to enter your film in this competition, but your film has to feature one, or be written by one. Check out this brand new competition at The Women Over 50 Film Festival (WOFFF) and enter n…

Because just having a strong script and a great filmmaking team is not enough! Unlocking NZFC production funding depends on a letter of offer from a local distributor as part of your audience engagement plan. This Script To Screen TALK will help those wit…

We're excited that the premieres of these films with Wifters on board, will be at the upcoming New Zealand International Film Festival:
For My Father's Kingdom (NZ premiere in Auckland) Co-directed and produced by Vea Mafile'o and edited by Margot Francis
Bellbird (NZ premi…

The Huawei New Zealand Television Awards 2019 is - nearly - open for entries! The Awards recognise excellence in television, and honour the special skills and unique talents of the companies and individuals who create, produce, and perform in television programmes in New Zealand. Ent…

Calling all feature film scriptwriters! Here's your chance for a five-day workshop tailored to meet the development needs of your feature film project. Script To Screen's Story Camp Aotearoa 2019 is a residential feature film workshop that fosters craft, voice and vision. Selected participants work…

If you've been inspired by the masterful director Claire Denis, you'll be interested to learn which films inspired her. Le Cinema CLub calls Denis, "One of contemporary cinema's great iconoclasts, a restless formal experimenter whose work is marked by its sensuality, empathy, and acute psychological insi…

The Women in Film (WIF) Film Finishing Fund gives grants to female filmmakers working in both short and long formats, in all genres. To apply, the filmmaker must have completed 90% of principal photography and have a rough cut at the time of application. Internati…

ITV has taken a stand and will no longer commission comedy shows that have an all-male writing team. The broadcaster's head of comedy, Saskia Schuster, made the announcement after realising that the shows she works on had "an awful lot" of teams without any wo…

These 30 minute sessions are provided at no cost to WIFT members, so do use them if you need to speak to a lawyer about any technology, media or intellectual property related issues. There are 2 x 30 minute scheduled sessions between 2pm and …

What's hot from Cannes at the NZIFF this year? A delicious selection of 25 films has been confirmed, including eight from the Competition section of the festival - amongst them are Jury Prize winners (tied) Les Mis�rables and Bacurau. NZIFF's 2019 Cannes selections also fea…

Entries are now open for these awards to be held at the the 2019 SPADA Conference (20-21 November). The three awards recognise different aspects of the local screen production industry and are a great opportunity to nominate people who you think are doing great w…

There are just weeks to go before the 51st New Zealand International Film Festival kicks off, so clear plenty of space in your schedules and don't forget to make the most of the WIFT member discount on ticket prices! The member code is WIFT …

Next Tuesday (2 July) is the Contemporary Feminism: Sons of Feminism - the second panel discussion in a series organised by Wellington's City Gallery and Radio New Zealand (RNZ). Chaired by RNZ's Susie Ferguson, this panel asks how can we begin to unpack our narrat…

Calling all new writers and filmmakers, Short Film Otago wants to hear from you! SFO has a new funding round open for scripts/film ideas/outlines for development and possible funding. Otago writers and film makers early in their career can apply for $500 script development gr…

If you started out in the film and TV business between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2019, read on! Did you know that if you are not linked to an accountant (tax agent), you have to file a tax return before 7th July 20…

Here's something to help keep the kids entertained during the school holidays. Young Riders is a series following six talented young equestrians behind the scenes and at horse shows around the North Island, all competing for the title of Young Rider. All 24 episodes …