Congratulations to Madeleine Hakaraia de Young who will step into the role of Māoriland Film Festival Director (MFF), taking over from Libby Hakaraia.
Under Libby’s ten years of stewardship, the MFF has grown to be the largest Indigenous film festival in the world, connecting audiences with a wide range of stories from across the globe.
The success of the MFF under Libby (pictured left) has led to the formation of the Māoriland Charitable Trust in 2016, and the opening of the Māoriland Hub in 2017.
As a founding member of MFF, Madeleine (pictured right) has led festival programming and spearheaded the development and implementation of Te Uru Maire – the Māoriland Rangatahi Strategy.
Madeleine’s work with Te Uru Maire was recognised at the 2021 New Zealander of the Year awards where Madeleine was a semifinalist for Young New Zealander of the Year.
Moving forward, Libby will assume a role overseeing Māoriland Productions, which has a slate of film works in development including feature films, short films, drama series, animation and documentary.