A special collector’s edition of Boy went on sale this week barely three months after the original DVD release.
It includes a bonus disc of extras with an introduction by writer/director Taika Waititi, a behind the scenes short with a Waititi commentary, deleted and extended scenes, outtakes, Crazy Horses videos, and Waititi’s Oscar-nominated short film, Two Cars, One Night.

The 27th Sundance Film Festival has announced its line-up selection and included are two New Zealand short films: Ebony Society, Outrageous Fortune star Tammy Davis’ debut as a writer/director; and Redemption, which is director and co-writer Katie Wolfe’s second short film to be invited to the fest.

At the SPADA conference on 12 November Rob Tapert was named as 2010′s Onfilm/SPADA Industry Champion, Ainsley Gardiner and Cliff Curtis were tapped as the Crombie Lockwood/MTJ Independent Producer(s) of the Year, and Briar March was celebrated as the SPADA New Filmmaker of the Year.

Boy and Home by Christmas have received nominations in the 2010 Asia Pacific Screen Awards, the region’s highest accolade in film. Australian actor Tony Barry (pictured) has been nominated in the Best Performance by an Actor category for his role in Home by Christmas, directed by Gaylene Preston, while Boy has been nominated for Best Children’s Feature Film, which is open to films suitable for a young audience up to the age of 16 or are films that reveal the world through the perspective of a child character.

This week’s début of Iron Man 2 on DVD and Blu-ray opens what should be a ferociously competitive fourth quarter for distributors and retailers, and marks Paramount’s first NZ Triple Play release, including as it does the Blu-ray of the Iron Man sequel as well as a DVD and digital copy.

The year’s biggest-grossing theatrical hit has been the #1 rental title since its home video release three weeks ago, while sales mirror those of a typical Hollywood blockbuster.

Friday’s DVD release of the record-breaking NZ movie, Boy, comes just days after it racked up one of the highest screen averages in Australia.

Taika Waititi’s coming-of-age comedy/drama grossed A$275,026 on 41 screens in its opening weekend across the Tasman.

Boy and The Cult will cap a rash of Kiwi movies and TV series due on DVD over the next two months.
Taika Waititi’s coming-of-age blockbuster is tentatively slated for September 1, while the Great Southern TV serial will bow on August 19.
Ironically, Vendetta Films is releasing the latter as “The Complete First Series,” even though a second wasn’t commissioned after the first 13 episodes tanked on TV2.

News of Boy being illegally downloaded ahead of its international release won’t just concern filmmakers.
Broadcasters are equally worried about peer-to-peer file sharing and say the incidence is now much higher here than in the US.

Gaylene Preston’s Home by Christmas grossed $189,792 in its opening weekend, to rank third at the box office after the record-breaking Iron Man 2 and the perennially popular Boy.
The Metropolis release opened on 57 screens – Boy, which grossed $480,576 at the weekend, has expanded to 84 – and averaged $3,329 a screen. (Anzac Weekend screenings the previous week took $70,176.)
Dwarfing everything in its wake was Iron Man 2, which grossed $1,438,473 on 91 screens, making it the No.1-opening movie of the year (Boy holds the year’s fifth-highest opening weekend gross of $607,471).

NZ Film, the sales and marketing arm of the Film Commission, will look to set itself apart next month at the Cannes Film Festival.
It’ll be the first Cannes that Kathleen Drumm’s successor, James Thompson, will attend as NZ Film’s chief, and he says “We’re taking a slightly different approach this year.

Boy rewarded the faith distributor Transmission Films demonstrated with its 55-print nationwide release by averaging more than $11,000 on each screen over its first four days.

Taika Waititi’s second feature, Boy, will open nationally on 56 screens tomorrow following its New Zealand premiere tonight at Hoyts Sylvia Park in Auckland.

The NZFC’s new sales and marketing chief, James Thompson, heads to the 60th Berlin International Film Festival this week after having just returned from the Sundance Film Festival. “It’s very tough,” he says of the international market. “People are still looking for big cast attachments and strong films that are sure-fire commercial winners. People are a little bit hesitant to take risks on projects. So I’m certainly not gung-ho but I believe in what we’ve got on our slate.”