WIFT NZ News

The revamped New Zealand Screen Awards was held on November 21 and what a nourishing, fun and inspriring collective celebration of the entire screen industry it was!

Among the many highlights of the evening was hearing and feeling the emotional tributes to the late Lee Tamahori from so many in the room who knew him…

The successful applicants for NZ ON AIR funding have been announced and the list includes a large swathe of hard-working and talented Wifties. Congrats to all the below!

FUNDING RECIPIENTS

Te Māngai Pāho Co-Fund

Dead Ahead 2, 6 × 22.5’, Hi Mama for TVNZ+, up to $1,449,496

End Of The Valley 2- The Price of…

This year’s Spada Emerging Producer of the Year goes to our very own WIFT wonder woman - WIFT Events and Membership Manager - Jazz dos Santos!

This award is sponsored by the New Zealand Film Commission, and Jazz takes home a cash prize of $4,000, a one-year Spada membership and a complimentary registration to the…

Congratulations to the Wiftie creatives who have been announced among the latest recipients of the Screen Canterbury Production Grant.

Four diverse productions have secured support, and collectively the round is projected to inject $2.95 million into the local economy, employing 193 crew, 50 Canterbury-based screen businesses, and 57 additional local suppliers.

Move Fast and Break…

The awards show wins and nominations keep on coming for Three’s hit series Happiness.

Fresh from a big Best Supporting Actor win for Peter Hambleton at the recent New Zealand Screen Awards, the show has been announced as a finalist for Best Comedy in three major global awards:

• Asian Academy Creative Awards (Singapore)
• C21 International…

Myths & Maidens unpacks the stereotype of the Pasifika woman. Since the 1800s the ‘hula girl’ has been used to sell the Pacific to the Western world. Alongside ideal beauty standards have come expectations of certain behaviour; peaceful, happy and non-resistant.

Click here to watch the full documentary.

After selling out theatres across the country at Whānau Mārama New Zealand International Film Festival, the micro-budget feature film, Notes from a Fish, is set for a limited theatrical release.

The screwball-comedy-mystery follows a would-be novelist’s creative drought which turns chaotic when his muse, a psychic fish, disappears and drags him into a journey of…

For those of us who grew up watching "A Dog's Show" on the telly every week, some excellent news!

Principal photography has begun on the feature film of the same name, and inspired by, A Dog’s Show.

The film stars Graham McTavish (Outlander, The Hobbit), David Wenham (The Lord of the Rings, Lion), and acclaimed…

We are lucky enough to be giving away x5 double passes to Dead Of Winter!

Starring Academy Award winner Emma Thompson like you’ve never seen her before, DEAD OF WINTER is a 5-star, edge-of-your-seat suspense thriller – in cinemas November 27.  Recently widowed fisherwoman Barb interrupts the kidnapping of a teenage girl while travelling alone…

Filmmaker and Wifite Brydie Morton has an work experience opportunity on her new feature film beginning next year.

The team is looking for a marketing manager to oversee all marketing, a role which will entail managing socials and driving film promotion. They are looking for someone with a creative eye who enjoys creating captivating content…

By popular demand November 22nd or 29th, this intensive workshop from Elena Stejko is designed for actors who want to feel prepared, professional and inspired.

Actors Studio Elena Stejko - AUDITION PREP WORKSHOP 

NOVEMBER 22ND or 29TH 

10:00 - 2:00 pm

AUCKLAND

Price: $200

Click here to register : actorsstudio@gmx.com

Dame Gaylene Preston’s GRACE: A Prayer for Peace selected for Hiroshima International Film Festival 2025

Dame Gaylene Preston’s latest feature, GRACE: A Prayer for Peace, has been officially selected for the Hiroshima International Film Festival (HIFF) 2025.

The screening will take place in late November 2025, with Dame Gaylene travelling to Hiroshima, Japan, to personally…

We here at WIFT Central - and like all of you - know the true value of a mentor.

So when filmmaker and Wiftie Zoe McIntosh shared with us this incredible tribute to her own mentor, Costa Botes, we begged her to allow us to share it with you all.

Costa Botes is fighting prostate…

Congrats to Greenstone TV for the selection of Happiness as Comedy-Drama Series finalists in the C21’s International Drama Awards!

These awards are voted for by the world’s leading scripted commissioners and buyers from more than 500 entries across 11 categories.

The winners will be announced at the International Drama Awards Ceremony December 4th UK time…

We ADORE movie ticket giveaways here at WIFT and what a film we have on offer: Die My Love

Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson under the spell of visionary director Lynne Ramsay and producer Martin Scorsese? Sign us up!

We have five double passes to giveaway to the first five Wifties who email us at…

Iconic Production House TOYBOX is for sale for the first time since it was founded.

TOYBOX was founded over 35 years ago under Flying Start Pictures, a live action and post-production house with a reputation for quality work delivered on time and on budget servicing the Australasian advertising market.

TOYBOX has evolved into a diversified…

Wifties Megan Jones (co-producer) and Stacey Murdoch (co-producer) have had their short film Breath of Life selected as one of ten in the world for the mental health grant and festival "Voices with Impact". The grant is $7.5k USD

Their short doco is about how New Zealand athlete Mea Motu used her experience of escaping…

From director, producer, actor and Wiftie Acacia O’Connor comes a new play called Tales of a City by the Sea, a story we all know of love and longing – set against the backdrop of Gaza in 2008.

With a creative crew lead by Tāmaki Makaurau’s Palestinian community, supported by people from all over the…

Filmmaker and Wiftie Cathy Garcia-Sampana is delighted to screen her new Filipino film Meet, Greet & Bye.

WIFT Winners at the Vista Foundation 48 Hours Film Comp 2025!

Tied Runner Up: “Maybe Daddy” by Jovial Entertainment
Members part of this team: Isla McLeod, Malinna Liang, Renaye Tamati

Grand Finalists:
        

• Baby Girl by Pixel Pixies
  Members part of this team: Francesca Mackenzie

• iTROLL by Permanently Confused
  Members part of this team: Hweiling Ow, Sara Chen
  
  
• The…

You don't need me to tell you that the wonderful WIFT Award's Nominations are open for business - and if you don't take my word for it, then obviously you'll take the indomitable WIFT Executive Director Patricia Watson's!

Patricia has entered the Instagram chat on the @wiftnz account with her non-nonsense reels, stories and posts…

“It needed to be captured”. That's what debut feature director and longtime Wiftie Chelsea Winstanley knew deep in her heart when she began to document the Toi Tū Toi Ora exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery. That journey would take her all the way to the Venice Biennale where the Mataaho Collective won the prestigious…

Join the upcoming NZFC webinars to ask questions and share feedback on funding pathways. The team will review recent changes to funding guidelines—what's working and what’s not—and share updates, including information about our new production grants and our innovation strand.

Head of Funding, Ainsley Gardiner and Development Lead, Esther Cahill-Chiaroni will be at these webinars…

CEO and producer Nicole Horan of Hi Mama Productions has won the MWDI Māori Businesswomen’s Overall Supreme Award 2025.

This highly coveted accolade celebrates outstanding achievements, innovation, and leadership within te ao pakihi Māori (the Māori business world).

Hi Mama Productions, a leading Māori-owned film and television production company, was awarded Te Tohu Aorangi Overall…

We’re delighted to congratulate Fiona Samuel MNZM, announced as the 2025 Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellow! 

An award-winning writer, director, and 2012 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate, herwork has shaped the way women’s stories are told on stage and screen. Her film Pike River has just been released in NZ cinemas, going straight to…

You’re invited to the next virtual NYWIFT Masterclass Series The Documentary + Docu-Series Masterclass: From Seed to Stream: The Art and Architecture of Non-Fiction Storytelling. This dynamic three-night virtual program led by award-winning filmmaker Yvonne Russo will guide participants from the heart of an idea to a streamer-ready pitch.

Over three immersive sessions, filmmakers will…

Time to book the last weekend actors intensive workshop with Vicky Yiannoutsos for the year, in Wellington!

The workshop will be held on the weekend of November 22-23 and Vicky will work on:

• Strengthening acting muscles
• Deepening authentic connection
• Improving sight-reading skills

This weekend workshop trains actors to create believable characters and emotionally connected relationships…

Congrats to both our Wiftie winners at the fabulous Show Me Shorts - in a sea of men they shine out.

NZ on Air Best Music Video: Jessica Todd for Aua Atu Rā – Marlon Williams

Script to Screen Best Screenplay: Alex Farley for Wild Nights, Wild Nights!

CLICK HERE FOR ALL THE AWARD WINNERS

We have a WIFT Ticket Giveaway - Your chance to win one of 5 double passes to see a fabulous film hitting cinemas on November 13 called Familiar Touch.

A triple award-winner at the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons Competition, Familiar Touch is a coming-of-old-age story that belongs to us all.

Amid the haze of fading…