Arora and Hudson Sow the Seeds for Features

Congratulations to DEGANZ members Pulkit Arora and Jayde Hudson for receiving writing grants from the New Zealand Writers Guild’s (NZWG) 2024 Seed Round.

Each round offers different types of funding aimed at writers of different experience levels. Seed offers six grants of $10,000 for the development of a first draft of a feature film script. Meanwhile, Seed Advanced is a more flexible and higher grant for experienced screenwriters. This round introduced Seed Rautaki Māori to support an emerging Māori screenwriter on their feature film development pathway.

This year, competition was tough as NZWG received 112 Seed and 36 Seed Advanced applications, marking the highest number of submissions to date. Judges Kathryn Burnett (Aotearoa), Sav Rodgers (USA), Mukilan Thangamani (Australia), and Cher Zimmerman (Germany) made up this year’s selection panel.

This year, Pulkit was one of six writers to receive Seed funding while Jade was the sole recipient of the Seed Rautaki Māori grant. Read more about their project below:

Pulkit Arora

The Last Prince

A blue-eyed Indian prince pretends to be white to start a new life with his family in 1925 Australia, only to be forced to accept the heritage he abandoned and resist the colonisation he abetted.

Jayde Hudson

Nevermind

In the mid-90s, a freewheeling ten-year-old navigates a new world of bullies and other dangerous creatures when her family relocates to Australia to care for her terminally ill grandmother.

 

Last updated on 21 November 2024

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NZ Web Fest Awards This Year’s Bests

An exciting update from our previous piece about the DEGANZ members nominated for awards at this year’s NZ Web Fest! Six projects with members involved won awards. The Ahikāroa team had a particularly successful run, taking home four awards by the end of the night.

The festival held the awards ceremony in Tāmaki Makaurau on 10 September to wrap up its run this year. Congratulations to the winners and all nominated projects!

NZ Short Films (Narrative)

Dive

Best Writing

Writer: Fredrick Pokai

Director: Tyler Redmond

A coming-of-age drama that follows a young competitive swimmer named Paula, who is trained by her father Troy. Despite her dedication and hard work, Paula’s results don’t meet her father’s high standards. Meanwhile, Troy struggles with financial problems and the possibility of losing their home. As the national swimming competition approaches, tensions rise between father and daughter, and Paula begins to question her passion for the sport.

 

NZ Web Series (Factual)

Turning the Tide

Best Directing

Director: Magnolia Lowe

Producer: Tui Ruwhiu

Editor: Amanda Mulderry

The Turning the Tide six-part short documentary series highlights the work of researchers, kaitiaki, and community members as they pool their knowledge and resources to improve the health of the seas around Aotearoa New Zealand.

 

NZ Web Series (Narrative)

ADHD + Me

Best Directing

Director: Michelle Ang

A comedy web series about a woman who unexpectedly receives a late ADHD diagnosis. When her ADHD manifests as a person that only she can see, she must reevaluate how well she knows her own brain.

Ahikāroa

Best Narrative Series

Best Editing

Best Ensemble

Best Acting (awarded to Turia Schmidt-Peke)

Co-editor: Jack Woon

Writer & Storyliner: Onehou Strickland

A Māori bilingual series following a crazy group of city-based rangatahi. They’re young, kura kaupapa raised and dangerously onto it. Their world orbits around getting cash, cutting corners and charging their phones.

The Creature

Best Cinematography

Director: Jake Tabata

Producer: Isabelle (Izzi) Hoskyn

Stuck in the online dating rut of endlessly swiping with no results, Aidan is ecstatic when he matches with his ‘dream man’. However, to leave for his date, Aidan must face the perturbed Creature lurking in the shadows of his home.

Well Well Wellness

Best Writing

Writer: Brady Polkinghorne

Director: Jack Nicol

A comedy web series that follows a silent retreat run by some well-meaning but hopeless wellness gurus. It follows the bumbling owners trying to save their haven, the mystic teachers who aren’t as deep as they seem, and the assorted mix of weird, wonderful, and worrisome retreatants who come to stay, find peace, or otherwise.

 

Last updated on 21 November 2024

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More News About ‘More Than Gold’

Dame Valerie Adams: More Than Gold, edited by Margot Francis (DEGANZ) and produced by fellow member Leanne Pooley, continues its successful international film festival run with the Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival (GZDOC). The film will screen in cinemas in Guangzhou and Shenzhen this December, hosted by the NZ Consulate General in Guangzhou.

Now with over 20 years under its belt, GZDOC is a highlight event for China’s documentary industry and is the only state-level professional platform for documentary financing and traditions functions. The festival integrates competition, screening, pitching, training, forums, and marketing for international filmmakers to take part in.

The 90-minute documentary tells the inspirational story of Olympic champion, Kiwi icon, Tongan leader, mother, daughter, sister, and survivor Dame Valerie Adams. She shares her story with profound honesty and vulnerability which is rare among professional athletes. Both funny and gut-wrenching, Dame Valerie shows us what it means to be a world-class competitor and someone for whom winning means more than gold. The film speaks to anyone who has faced hardship, loss, or pursued a dream.

If you’d like to check the film out (but won’t be in China this December), you can watch More Than Gold on NEON or Sky Go in Aotearoa now!

Last updated on 21 November 2024

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Eady and Redmond Take Home Bronze and Silver at the NZCS Awards

DEGANZ members Dan Eady and Tyler Redmond received kudos at this year’s New Zealand Cinematographers Society’s (NZSC) Cinematography Awards.

NZSC created the festival in 2016 as a way for cinematographers’ mahi in Aotearoa to be evaluated and recognised to help boost their profiles and progress their careers. With a variety of categories from music videos to features to news and current affairs, the awards recognise productions of any genre and budget level, with bronze, silver, and gold awarded per category.

Dan won Bronze in the Web Series category for Sandwich, which he directed, produced, and shot.

Tyler brought home the Silver in the Student Films category for Bring Me Home, a short he was DOP for while studying.

Congratulations Dan and Tyler for the recognition of your hard work!

 

Last updated on 21 November 2024

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Trumped… Again

View from the Top banner

Well, it’s done and dusted. We have another Trump presidency. So what does that mean for our screen industry?

Unfortunately, it would seem we have a volatile future in store.

As Trump has been telling us pretty much from Day 1, he wants to ‘Make America Great Again’.

He’s clearly indicated he wants to put tariffs on exports into the US market. For New Zealand, that could mean a 10 – 20% tariff on our NZ$8.8 billion exports to there. That will hurt our economy further and it’s already fragile. Shifting to other export markets may not be enough. The current government has instituted many cuts, including to a number of our cultural funding institutions, in its efforts to turn the economy around. With our exports suffering, we can expect little support and possibly more belt tightening in the arts and culture sector.

The Hollywood studios will benefit from the touted reduction in US corporate taxes from 21% to 15%. And they already have the ability to immediately write off the full cost of film and TV productions that a Trump bill introduced last time. But Hollywood hasn’t proven itself a friend to Trump, with many high profile celebrities and guilds openly backing Harris. We know Trump can be vindictive, as evidenced by his threats and or actions against CNN, Disney’s ABC and CBS. Many in Hollywood and the entertainment industry will undoubtedly be seeking shelter as he lashes out at anybody who went against him this election. Instability in the US entertainment sector means instability in the global entertainment sector, including for us.

The New Zealand Film Commission has a planned LA Showcase coming up in the next month. With so much uncertainty about to ensue in Hollywood, now may not be the best time to head there to drum up business.

Undoubtedly, one aim of any NZFC visit to LA would be to encourage more runaway production to New Zealand. However, one thing that may result from a Trump presidency is more studio production staying stateside, to help ‘Make America Great Again’. The international production pipeline in New Zealand from the second quarter of next year is already looking dicey. If the majority of now reduced US production stays there, a drop in internationals coming to NZ combined with an already slim funding stream for domestic production doesn’t bode well for us.

It’s hard at this point to see any upside for the New Zealand screen industry from a Trump win. Our best hope at this point is that we don’t experience a downside, even though there are signs that it may well be in the offing.

 

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

Last updated on 7 November 2024

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