An ultra low budget home-crafted documentary has taken out two prestigious trophies at the 2010 Qantas Awards. This Way of Life won Best Director – Documentary for Thomas Burstyn and Best Arts/Festival/Feature Documentary at the event on Saturday. This follows a gushing review in international film bible Variety, where it describes the film as “A [...]

The winners of the 2010 Qantas Film and Television Awards were announced tonight during a star-studded Awards Gala at The Civic in Auckland. Rick Friesen, Awards committee co-chair and New Zealand Television Broadcasters’ Council chief executive, noted that the Awards had become the calendar highlight for the film and television industries. “The Qantas Film and Television Awards provide the opportunity for our industries to step back, assess the year’s work and celebrate best practise. Every year, the bar gets set higher, but the work being produced continues to exceed expectations.”

Thinking Cactus, a Christchurch based software company, has had its animation software ‘Voovees Director’ used in the Star Wars Uncut movie winning an Emmy Award last week. Indy Liu, one of the founders of Thinking Cactus said “we are really excited that ‘Voovees Director’ has been selected to create part of the movie and even more delighted Star [...]

Funding from finance and grants to New Zealand’s screen industry almost doubled over the last four years, to reach $585 million in 2009, Statistics New Zealand said today. The Screen Industry Survey, first run in 2005, has now collected five years worth of data, providing an opportunity for New Zealanders to draw conclusions about the [...]

Confirming its position as the prime North American launch pad for independent features, the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival has today announced its line-up of world premieres. New Zealand film Matariki has been included in the selection, directed by first time feature filmmaker Michael Bennett, and produced by Fiona Copland.

Principal photography has begun in Wellington, New Zealand on World War II Horror pic, THE DEVIL’S ROCK. Written by Paul Finch, Paul Campion and Brett Ihaka, The Devil’s Rock is award-winning short film director Paul Campion’s debut feature film. His short films Night of the Hell Hamsters and Eel Girl have screened at every major [...]

The world’s film review bible, Variety, has given self-funded New Zealand made documentary This Way of Life a rave review, helping in its bid to qualify for Academy Award® consideration. Variety reviewer John Anderson describes This Way of Life as “A collision of realities – earthly nature vs. human nature” with a “very big heart…catapulting [...]

A Short Films programme screening over four evenings and two matinee sessions, an additional programme of longer, high-altitude adventure movies on the final night, live music from Fernando Aragones at all evening shows and a photographic exhibition from award winning photographers Mike Langford and Jackie Ranken make up the 5th annual Adventure Film Festival opening [...]

Cold Clay, Emptiness… the latest work by New Zealand filmmaker SJ.Ramir, has been selected to screen in the Orizzonti section of the 67th Venice International Film Festival. La Biennale di Venezia, organisers of the festival, created the Orizzonti section in 2004 to examine “new trends in cinema” with particular attention to be paid to the [...]

A diverse selection of award winning action sports, travel and adventure films from around the world will be on show in Queenstown in August. The 5th Queenstown Adventure Film Festival presented by Columbia, opens on 12 August and showcases world class films that celebrate adventures on snow, land, water and in the air. The 2010 [...]

The makers of award-winning Kiwi short films Teddy and Communication have launched a donation appeal to fund their new film, The Colonel’s Outing. The Colonel’s Outing tells the story of two eighty-year-old male war veterans whose romantic relationship blossoms when they meet in a rest home, despite interference from a disapproving Matron. Producer Andy Jalfon [...]

The 2010 Qantas Film and Television Awards has received an impressive 637 entries, providing a clear indication of the strength and resilience of New Zealand’s film and television industries. Despite a challenging economic environment, the quality and calibre of work that was produced in the past year is both significant and worthy of celebration, say [...]

The film Art that Moves, funded by Creative New Zealand’s Screen Innovation Production Fund (SIPF), has just won the Van Gogh Award, one of the top prizes at the July 2010 Amsterdam Film Festival. Art That Moves, directed by Roger Horrocks and produced by Shirley Horrocks, dramatizes the moment when sixteen-year old Len Lye has [...]

Home-crafted New Zealand documentary This Way of Life is on track to be eligible to submit to the Academy Awards. Set to screen July 30 – August 5 in New York, and August 6 – August 12 in Los Angeles, the film is part of the International Documentary Association's DocuWeeks™ presentation. DocuWeeks™ helps to qualify [...]