Archive Apr 2021

Producers! If you haven't already, get your submissions in for this, round three of the Co-Fund Round between New Zealand On Air and Te Māngai Paho. This contestable funding opportunity will support high-quality factual content made for linear television, on-demand and online viewing. 

Scripted production…

Do you have a bold, ambitious project with significant international appeal? You should apply to Ara ki Te Puna Kairangi – The Premium Development Fund which is designed to support projects that intend to apply to Te Puna Kairangi – Premium Productions for International Audiences…

Today is International Transgender Day of Visibility, so we're sharing these helpful resources the NZFC has put together.

The day was founded in 2009 by US-based Trans Activist Rachel Crandall, and is dedicated to celebrating the accomplishments of transgender and gender nonconforming people, while raising…

The Vista Foundation and Home & Family Counselling have collaborated to provide support to the people of the New Zealand film industry who have been affected by the social and commercial constraints of the Coronavirus pandemic.  You must be a member of a screen guild…

If you’re planning to apply for funding from NZ ON Air for the HEIHEI children’s round, note that instead of a two-step process, this year all applicants will need to submit full proposals to the August/September targeted round. 

Enjoy an evening watching award-winning Scottish short films featuring hot chips, heavy metal, a Highland battle and a drunken night out! Show Me Shorts brings Scottish Short Film Night to Auckland and Wellington for your viewing pleasure.

You'll be watching:

1. Boys Night directed by James…

We encourage you to attend this workshop and help make the sector a safe environment for everybody. Numbers for each workshop are limited to 24, so book your space now! The April dates are:

Dunedin – Friday 16 April, 2021.

Auckland – Friday 23 April,…

We're thrilled to see so many members projects were approved for funding in this round! The New Zealand Film Commission Board approved a record $9.6 million across eight applications for production financing at the March Board Meeting.

A BIG congratulations to you all - we've…

If these doco makers don't raise the funds they need their docos won't get made. You can help by giving them a funding Boost!

Brought together under the theme of Tūmanako/Hope, these members are at the all important crowdfunding stage, and need to raise $3,500…

WIFT NZ member Christina Milligan has been appointed as the Independent Chair of the Premium Production Fund decision-making panel which has been established as a committee of the New Zealand Film Commission Board.

The fund was announced in December by the Minister for Arts, Culture…

Congratulations to Anna Duckworth and her team whose Fresh Shorts funded Pain is celebrating not one, but three international film festival selections for the month of April. Pain will premiere in North America next month with the Academy accredited 30th Aspen Shortsfest (April 6-11), followed…

A huge congratulations to the Night Raiders team, whose film will have its World Premiere at the Berlinale - Berlin International Film Festival in the Panorama section! Night Raiders is a Canada and New Zealand co-production, and producers included Ainsley Gardiner from Miss Conception Films,…

A warm haere mai and welcome to our new members! 

Loren Black, Madeleine Askwith, Zuleika Gilbert, Loren Black, Dean Thomas, Jaala Smith, Blake Ihimaera, Dr Soha Ahmed, Holly Bennett, Iris Lamarr, Stella Taylor, Janice Davies, Manon Sasso, Gabrielle White, Gabrielle Mentjox, Rebekah Motley, Nico Franks,…

We'd like to acknowledge the news that New Zealand Film Commission CEO Annabelle Sheehan is stepping away from the role, after three years leading the agency, and returning to Australia.

Annabelle has been undergoing treatment for breast cancer over the past six months and has…

It's with much sadness that we acknowledge the passing of Paul Richards this week. Paul was a much-valued member of WIFT NZ. 

We share with you the following memories from the New Zealand Cinematographers Society.  

A great sadness swept across the industry this week when…

Learn the art of relating with acting coach Vicky Yiannoutsos. This twice weekly five-week Masterclass trains actors to create believable characters and emotionally connected relationships on screen.

Working in pairs with scripts, actors learn the Art of Relating, which maximises creative choices and trains actor…

On one blood-stained night a drug deal gone wrong sets off a chain of events for dangerous factions and an innocent bystander. Welcome to Vegas – the new TVNZ 2 action thriller produced by Greenstone TV and written by Michael Te Arawa Bennett, to start…

A big round of applause and a box of chocolates for Aleisha Staples and her team at Staples VR (Staples Productions). They're a 2021 Hi-Tech Awards finalist in the Auckland Unlimited Most Innovative Hi-Tech Creative Technology Solution category.

The Hi-Tech Awards Gala Dinner will take…

Congratulations to Juliet Peterson who has joined the Discovery leadership team as Senior Director, Programming.

Five of the team are based in New Zealand, and four in Australia. 

Discovery Inc said unveiling the leadership team was its first move toward combining its businesses across the…

Before she was a seasoned director with a hit feature under her belt, Jackie van Beek directed and starred in this 2014 short film, playing a tramper who finds her solitude interrupted in a Southern Alps hut.

Uphill won the 2015 Women in Film and…

Woop woop! Here's a quick shout out to the team behind Cousins: this film, co-directed by Ainsley Gardner and Briar Grace Smith, has been invited to screen in the Hawai‘i International Film Festival (HIFF) Showcase Series 'Indigenous Lens' in association with Pacific Islanders in Communications.…

Lets hear it for this groundbreaking webseries that became a film! Produced by Craig Gainsborough, Rūrangi has made it onto Vogue's 'Top 10 Upcoming Queer Films to Watch'. 

Check out the list here!

Pictured: Elz Carrad stars as Caz in Rūrangi

Our give away this issue is a must-see on the big-screen! In the aftermath of an unfathomable event, Edee (Robin Wright, Golden Globe®-award winner for TV’s House of Cards) finds herself unable to stay connected to the world she once knew and in the face…

Writers, did you know that for these Seed grants, there are no constraints on genre, content, characters, location or even the space-time continuum.

And, WIFT NZ members who apply receive the New Zealand Writers Guild discounted application rate of $20.

Funded by the New Zealand…

How's this for a brief? RNZ wants to see the content "that you think we wouldn’t be up for".

This latest RFP is seeking short pitches for high quality, Music, Factual and Entertainment video or multi-media proposals that resonate with rangatahi and that will be…

Build momentum in your career and push yourself to your full potential!

The FilmUp Mentorship programme returns for its ninth year to support and empower up to eight tenacious and talented filmmakers to reach the next stage in their creative careers. If you are developing…

Script To Screen has extended the cut-off date for expressions of interest to its programme The A-to-Z of Screen Publicity.

You now have until 4pm on Friday 16 April to get them in.

There are only 35 places so we encourage only those with, or…

There are a few spaces left for these Auckland workshops - book your space now! We encourage you to attend and help make the sector a safe environment for everybody. 

The dates are:

Friday 23 April – 6 spaces left

or

Friday 14 May –…

Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga The New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) has announced appointments to four roles in the Development and Production team headed by Leanne Saunders.

Two of the roles are in the investment area, where Angela Littlejohn will take up the role of Senior…

Check out the industry insights and outputs from the online FOCUS Digital 2020 event. FOCUS offers the creative screen industries a platform to connect and share global production expertise – whether you work in film, TV, advertising, animation or games.

Click here to read 

Do you need to put up cast and crew in Queenstown during a shoot? Thanks to our friends at Heritage Hotels, the rates below are valid until 31 July, 2021.

Deluxe Room $159.00*

Studio Suite $239.00*

Studio Suite Lakeview $259.00*

Free Breakfast for guests booked

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival has released its programme for the 2021 Industry Conference! Taking place during Hot Docs Festival, April 29 - May 9, this year's conference will focus on reimaging a more representative and equitable doc ecosystem.

Remember, the online industry…

Are you keen to take pictures of gorgeous scenery? Film Otago Southland want to expand the coverage and depth of their film locations image library and are looking to contract photographers to capture fresh new location photography across the region.

Of course there's more to…

Newshub Nation Producer 
DISCOVERY NZ

Reporter NCA (Breakfast)
TVNZ

Brain Busters Adjudicator
Whitebait Media

Film Facilitator
Auckland Unlimited

Commercial Accountant
Rialto Film Channel

HR Advisor
NZ On Air

Talent Agent/Booker
Private advertiser

Creative Specialist
Manukau Institute of Technology

Independent Historian

Local Democracy Reporter
Allied Press

Te Manu Korihi Journalist
RNZ

Creative Producer - Live 
Capital E

Visual Journalist
Stuff

Content Creator/Videographer
Occeania…

This stunning new opera film, directed by Rebecca Tansley (The Heart Dances), was filmed in 2020 at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell. The story explores the sensual love triangle between Jupiter (King of the Gods), his wife Juno, and his lover, the mortal princess…

Such exciting news for the team that worked on this film! Written by Sophie Henderson, directed by Gaysorn Thavat and produced by Emma Slade, The Justice of Bunny King is one of three films funded through Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga New Zealand Film Commission’s (NZFC)…

A lot of hard work has paid off for producer Rachale Davies (Ngāti Mahanga), whose docuseries The Collective is live now on rnz.co.nz/thecollective.

The eight-part docuseries by Boxed Media follows six rangitahi through a youth music programme designed to give them real-world skills and help…

There's nothing like a bit of horror for the holidays! Producer Emma Slade's thriller Come To Daddy has won Best First Feature at the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards and we've included the trailer in our Video Slot. 

Click here to watch the trailer

Isey Cross lives with her adult son James on their small farm in Kawakawa, Northland. They’re descendants of Ngāti  Manu - The Bird People.

Isey is turning 100 years in a week. In their unique relation-ship, James has devoted the last 20 years to looking…

Women have been in the film business since the flickering early days of its existence, and this lavishly illustrated book documents just that.

Hollywood: Her Story, An Illustrated History of Women and the Movies starts with Alice Guy-Blaché, a French filmmaker who made her first…

It's official: Content London will return as a real-life event! Running between November 29 and December 2, 2021 this event will bring the global drama, formats, factual and kids' communities back together over three days at the end of 2021.

Organisers will also ensure the…

Thirty-eight years on, this tale of feminist revenge is "a boldly progressive piece of film-making", says The Guardian's review.  Starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton as three New York office workers who kidnap their misogynist monster of a boss (Dabney Coleman). Go and…

In time for winter viewing Doc Play is adding some prominent titles to its platform. One of those is the epic Women Make Film, narrated by Tilda Swinton, Jane Fonda, Adjoa Andoh, Sharmila Tagore, Kerry Fox, Thandie Newton and Debra Winger. Made up of forty…

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival free online industry programme kicks off this week! Check out the fabulous series of discussions, panels and keynotes that focus on building a more equitable doc ecosystem. Registration also gets you access to Micro Meetings with CBC Docs,…

... and not just any German film - these are experimental films from some of Germany's top directors! 

The line up, from the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, comprises:

• Der Natürliche Tod der Maus (The Natural Death of a Mouse) directed by Katharina Huber
• The…

What a great idea! WIFT NZ member Melissa Nickerson is part of NZ women photographers collective Women’s Work, which, with Saatchi & Saatchi, has produced a campaign that challenges ad-agency creative departments.

The case study film features the previously unseen campaign of 24 posters that…

What happens when the process of taking your film to market, securing international sales, attending festivals and ensuring an audience sees your film is disrupted by a pandemic?

Find out in Script To Screen's Taking Your Film to Audiences in a Covid World.

Georgina Conder…