Hweiling Ow Chosen as Finalist in Unreal Engine Short Film Challenge

Member Hweiling Owโ€™sย and Peter Haynesโ€™ animation Cheng Beng has received funding from the Unreal Engine Real-Time Short Film Challenge! Unreal Engine selected the project, alongside another film project from Australia, out of a short list of six others.

Unreal Engine is a 3D computer graphics engine developed by Epic Games. It hosted its inaugural film challenge in 2020. As part of the challenge, applicants receive free online animation training with the software and create pitches for their shorts. Winners (two teams from NZ, four from AUS) then secure funding and the opportunity to showcase their projects to major studio content development executives.

While a great opportunity, the challenge is rigorous as the funded projects only have eight weeks to produce their finished shorts.

Hweiling (Incubator 2021), a producer, director and actor, teamed up with Peter Haynes, who spent lockdown mastering the Unreal Engine software. Fellow DEGANZ member Lรฉah McVeagh is producing the project with executive producer Morgan Leigh Stewart.

Cheng Beng follows the efforts of a lonely man in the afterlife as he communicates with his family on Earth through the Taoist ritual of zhi-zha. While his family continuously offers him material goods, all he truly desires is a dog to keep him company. This film explores Chinese tradition and afterlife through the narrative and its use of animation to visually inform the world.

The team has just completed the filmโ€™s voiceovers, including Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien and English.

Keep an eye on the MHM production Facebook and Instagram for updates on the project!

Last updated on 28 July 2022

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On the Podcast: Coming Home in the Dark with James Ashcroft & Annie Collins

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Last year, DEGANZ was joined by director James Ashcroft and editor Annie Collins to discuss why they worked so well together on New Zealand thriller Coming Home in the Dark, and why trusting each other was an important factor. Enjoy this largely spoiler-free Q&A, moderated by DEGANZ member/director Rob Sarkies, on The DEGANZ Podcast.

Content warning:

  • This episode is for mature audiences only.
  • It contains references to abuse in state care.

Starring Daniel Gillies (The Vampire Diaries), Erik Thomson (The Luminaries), Miriama McDowell (Head High) and Matthias Luafutu (Ghost in the Shell), Coming Home in the Dark garnered rave reviews after premiering at Sundance 2021. It won Best Narrative, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor (Matthias Luafutu) at the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival.

Coming Home in the Dark is on streaming platforms. Click here for a list on where to find it.

Coming Home in the Dark / Photo: Sandy Lane Productions

Last updated on 28 July 2022

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We Are Still Here Trailer Released in Lead Up to NZIFF

The trailer for We Are Still Here was locally released on July 25, giving us a taste for this new, exciting film. The directorial team includes DEGANZ members Chantelle Burgoyne, Tim Worrall and board member Renae Maihi, along with Richard Curtis, Miki Magasiva, Mario Gaoa, Beck Cole, Danielle MacLean, Dena Curtis and Tracey Rigney.

The uniquely Indigenous film will make its Aotearoa premiere at the Whฤnau Mฤrama: NZIFF on August 4. It is also set to screen at MIFF in Melbourne and featured during the Sydney Film Festivalโ€™s opening night.

We Are Still Here is told through the perspectives of eight protagonists across 1,000 years, spanning past, present and future. It explores themes of kinship, grief and resilience. The interwoven stories highlight the strength of love and hope over the trauma that Indigenous people in the Pacific share. The film seeks to remind viewers that despite colonialism, racism, imperialism, and the attempted erasure of lives and culture, Indigenous people are still here.

Purchase tickets for NZIFF

 

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NZIFF: Masterclasses with Emmy-Award Winners Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine

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Film directors Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine (Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song) will lead a Masterclass for filmmakers in Auckland and Wellington as part of NZIFF 2022.

NZIFF is delighted to welcome Dan and Dayna back to New Zealand to present these Masterclasses designed for industry practitioners, thanks to an Artistic Development Partnership withย Creative New Zealandย and in association with theย Directors & Editors Guildย of Aotearoa New Zealandย (DEGANZ).

Theย Auckland Masterclassย will take place on Saturday 6 August and theย Wellington Masterclassย takes place on Wednesday 10 August and is supported by Wellington UNESCO City of Film.

Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine will take filmmakers inside their craft and uncover how their filmmaking process shifts from project to project.

For more than 25 years, the Emmy-award winning directors-producers have created critically-acclaimed multi-character documentary narratives that braid their charactersโ€™ individual personal stories to form a larger portrait of the human experience.

In addition toย Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song, their credits include acclaimedย The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Edenย (NZIFF 2014), the award-winningย Something Venturedย (NZIFF 2011) andย Ballets Russesย (NZIFF 2006). Dan and Dayna were admitted to the Documentary Branch of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2014.

Masterclass attendees are encouraged to seeย Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Songย at NZIFF beforehand.

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Auckland Masterclass with Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine

Date: Saturday 6 August 10.00am to 1.30pm
Venue:ย Wintergarden, The Civic, Cnr Queen and Wellesley Sts, Auckland CBD
Tickets:ย $30 Full price / $25 Industry guild concession

Limited to 50 participants

Click here to purchase tickets >

Wellington Masterclass with Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine

Date: Wednesday 10 August 10.00am to 1.30pm
Venue:ย Massey University College of Creative Arts (Room Mฤrama 1D08, Block 1 College of Creative Arts, Massey Entrance C), Wallace St, Mt Cook, Wellington
Tickets:ย $30 Full price / $25 Industry guild concession

Limited to 60 participants

Click here to purchase tickets >

Last updated on 26 July 2022

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DEGANZ members invited to 2022 MIFF Accelerator Lab

Members Kath Akuhata-Brown and Bala Murali Shingade will soon head off to the MIFF Accelerator Lab at the Melbourne International Film Festival. Kath and Bala will be attending the Lab’s programmes this August with the financial support of the NZFC.

The Accelerator is an acclaimed lab for promising short filmmakers to assist in their transition into feature filmmaking. Each year, MIFF selects by invitation up to 25 directors from the festival’s short film programme.

The programme provides four days of seminars, workshops, screenings and networking opportunities on the screen industry’s business and creative aspects. These events occur in August alongside the films’ public screenings in the specifically tagged Accelerator Screenings selection. This concludes with the MIFF Shorts Awards. The award winners of the Best Short Film, Best Australian Short Film, Best Documentary and Best Animation will be eligible to enter the Oscars.

Kath Akuhata-Brown

Kath will be attending the MIFF Accelerator Lab for directing Washday, a short film inspired by an ancient Mฤori story of the wind and the power of a child’s love for a parent. Eight-year-old Hine devises a plan to wash away her father’s grief for her passed mother. The film highlights simple rituals of daily life and the constant spiritual presence of gods and ancestors in a small Mฤori family.

This touching story has screened at multiple other festivals and crowned NZIFF’s Best Short Film in 2021. Additionally, Washday will be screening at the Smithsonian’s Native Cinema Showcase in Santa Fe, New Mexico, this August.

Bala Murali Shingade

Bala was invited to the programme with his film Perianayaki, edited by fellow DEGANZ member Shailesh Prajapati. Titular character Perianayaki, a recent Sri Lankan immigrant, is forced to reconcile with the bittersweet realities of her life on the day of her wedding anniversary. The film encourages empathy and provokes audiences to reconsider their assumptions of often ignored immigrants and service industry workers. The slice-of-life film will premiere at NZIFF this year as part of the Whฤnau Mฤrama: New Zealand’s Best selection.

We wish Kath and Bala a great time at the Accelerator Lab!

Last updated on 22 July 2022

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