Three New Zealand Directors Selected for the 2024 MIFF Accelerator Lab

DEGANZ is excited to announce the three New Zealand directors selected for the Melbourne International Film Festival’s (MIFF) Accelerator Lab. Each director is attending with a short film screening at the festival.

The Accelerator Lab will take place across four days during the festival this year which is running from 8-25 August. It is designed to nurture tomorrow’s top screen directors on the journey towards their first long-form works.

This year, DEGANZ is managing the participation of New Zealand short filmmakers in the Lab with ED Tui Ruwhiu attending to assist NZ’s participants, observe the sessions, and participate in panels scheduled in the Lab programme.

2024 MIFF ACCELERATOR LAB NEW ZEALAND DIRECTORS

Awanui Simich-Pene

Awanui is a filmmaker and television director of proud Māori descent. Her distinctive cinematic voice is informed by her steadfast commitment to authentic Māori storytelling and wahine perspective. She earned the NZFC Māori Screen Excellence Award for her direction of Titty & Bash in the acclaimed portmanteaux film Waru and is an alumna of Jane Campion’s A Wave in the Ocean Crest programme. Her 18 years of production experience have been balanced between writing, directing and script supervision.

 

First Horse
Aotearoa, 1826. A dying man rides home along the coastline, while a Māori girl weaves a toy boat. She ventures through the forest to launch her boat and is led astray. Sensing danger, she hides and spies on the man and his horse. Fascinated by the horse, she approaches the man. Realising he may have infected her with his disease, he faces a dark dilemma: let her go and risk spreading the illness further or end it there.

 

Te Waiarangi 

Ngāi Tūhoe and based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington). Raised by a single mother, surrounded by whanau and contemporary Māori art. For Te Waiarangi, storytelling is like a responsibility – if you can tell stories, you should. He wants to make films that uplift and celebrate Māori and Indigenous peoples. Te Waiarangi has been working steadily as an Assistant Director since 2018 which led to being invited to the writer’s room for Wellington Paranormal Season 4.

 

 

Honey Kaha
Presented to us in mockumentary style by writer/director and lead actress of Honey Kaha, Dr. Julia Love invites you to rediscover the genre-bending romp of New Zealand’s first badass wahine hero in this unearthed, early 80s funny, silly and smart action-thriller, complete with intentionally campy production values, over-the-top dialogue and hilarious yet thrilling bouts of action and violence!

 

Vea Mafile’o

Vea, the founder of Taro Patch Creative, is an award-winning Director/Producer with a vibrant passion for Pasifika arts. She excels in nurturing Pacific storytelling, with extensive experience in roles like Production Designer, Camerawoman, Reporter, Director, and Producer. Her works, including documentaries and dramas, have premiered at prestigious festivals like Berlinale and Sundance. Vea’s achievements include directing acclaimed TV series and founding the Nuku’alofa Film Festival. A practising artist, she holds a BVA and PGDip in Moving Image Installation from Auckland University.

 

Lea Tupu’anga / Mother Tongue
Katherine, a young speech therapist of Tongan and European heritage has lied about her Tongan language skills to work with Siaosi — an elderly patient with aphasia who has lost his ability to speak English. Out of her depth, Katherine must find a way to communicate or risk her patient’s life.

 

Last updated on 14 August 2024