It’s A Wonderful New World

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As we sit and contemplate if we should reform our funding bodies, how to rewrite their governing legislations, and look to squeeze funding out of the recalcitrant studios and streamers, the wonderful new world we work in moves on.

Streamers are now becoming digital TV stations, with a number scheduling their programming (the next episode drops on this day at this time). Read here.

They are also moving more mainstream in their content while offering a broad range from sports, reality, documentary and drama to feature films.

And advertising. But you have to pay for the ads on the streamers now, not get them for nix like you do with free-to-air broadcasters and their digital platforms.

Some streamers are seeing the value in theatrical windows for films—even Netflix—who is more and more caving in to auteur filmmaker demands. Read here.

Meanwhile, the US broadcasters at least are finding audiences and revenues in licensing their content to digital platforms, breathing new life into their aged operations. Read here.

While the ground under our screen feet feels increasingly shaky because of what’s going on internationally, I’ve sat in three Ministry of Culture and Heritage sessions so far related to the NZ Media Reform Discussion document, and I’ve got two more to go.

These meetings have essentially confirmed the view I’ve held for some time now: New Zealand is essentially ten years too late in adapting to what is happening in the global screen industry.

Peak TV, which started with Netflix’s House of Cards in 2013 and according to most pundits well and truly ended in 2023, is something New Zealand has completely missed the boat on creatively. Except for providing crews to international outfits coming here to make it with Peak TV money.

Change now is rapid, constant, and often catches us by surprise. Take AI.

Not much more than a year ago, many of us in the screen industry were wondering what the fuss was about.

Now we have jobs threatened and impacted, while Donald Trump and his cohort of tech billionaires are doing their utmost to ensure the US dominates the AI world. Chinese company DeepSeek out of nowhere may have upset that applecart.

IP is being scraped for AI use with scant regard for the creatives who laboured long and hard to develop it. The 82 year-old Sir Paul McCartney is just one of many Brits who are opposing proposed amendments to copyright legislation that would allow UK companies the right to scrape IP more easily in an effort for the British to keep up. Read here.

Our government has gone hands-off on legislation on how to deal with AI. Is hands-off now the new hands-on? The acting PM sitting next to me in the lounge this morning certainly thinks so.

While there are some elements of the Media Reform that will be useful in times ahead, the analyses conducted to determine the content in the document are already aging, some a touch inaccurate in my view, and by the time reform comes into play, the playing field will likely have changed again.

The nursery rhyme lines “Jack be nimble, Jack be quick…” couldn’t be more applicable for us all right now as we continue to navigate the fraught times ahead.

Isn’t it ironic that the “Jack” refers to Black Jack Smatt, an infamous English pirate who operated in the Caribbean, and who was more recently portrayed by Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow.

 

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

 

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Shake Up

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On Wednesday, the Ministry of Culture and Heritage issued the Media Reform Discussion Document.

This is the biggest shakeup to affect our sector next to that of the advent of international streamers, which has forever changed the global screen industry.

The changes proposed are significant. Many are long overdue.

Simply put, the proposed reform is due to:

  • The Broadcasting Act and New Zealand Film Commission Act being out of date.
  • The wider New Zealand media landscape—print, online and screen—is suffering because local advertising is being hoovered up by global platforms that do not pay tax in New Zealand.
  • The advent of streamers and online platforms has fractured New Zealand audience viewing habits, with more and more eyeballs going to content made internationally.
  • We are now part of a globally competitive content market and our shows in large part suffer from a lack of quality due to the lack of funding available firstly for development, and then for production.

The reforms proposed are:

  1. Ensuring accessibility of local media platforms: Require TV manufacturers to ensure local media services are prominent and visible on devices such as smart TVs so they can be easily found by audiences (Page 11).
  2. Increasing investment into and discoverability of local content: Require streaming platforms and TV broadcasters to invest in local content and implement measures to ensure it is more ‘discoverable’ on their platforms, supporting the production of and engagement with New Zealand stories (Page 15).
  3. Increasing captioning and audio description: Require more captioning and audio description on content that is broadcast or streamed to ensure access for disabled New Zealanders (Page 19).
  4. Modernising professional media regulation: Revise the broadcasting standards regime (including the Broadcasting Standards Authority) with platform-neutral and system-level regulation of professional media (Page 22).
  5. Streamlining Crown content funders: Consolidate NZ On Air and the Film Commission into a single entity, supporting efficient administration of government funding for local content and industry development

If you review the industry’s Aotearoa New Zealand Screen Sector Strategy delivered to the then Labour Government in 2020, you can see that many of the items up for discussion—and more—were mooted for examination. Read here.

Perhaps most contentious in the proposed reforms is the establishment of a single entity to replace NZ On Air and NZFC. There are advocates for and against this.

The merging of TV and film into screen content brought about by the streamers is highlighted in the document as one of the reasons a single entity should be considered. Another, is undoubtedly the current government’s sometimes misguided drive for greater efficiency and productivity, with the reasoning being one entity could do the work more efficiently and cost-effectively than two.

As our screen world continues to be affected by the constant change happening to it, which includes that being wrought by AI, it’s important that we do our best to influence how it will be governed.

I encourage you to read the Media Reform Discussion Document and to provide feedback on it as outlined by the deadline of 23 March 2025.

As part of our response, we will shortly conduct a survey to ascertain your thoughts on the proposal for a single funding body entity to replace NZ On Air and NZFC. Please take the time to do this.

 

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

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Here We Go

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We’ve got Trump in the White House again and billionaires running that country, LA’s still burning, and the war in Ukraine ongoing, while a tenuous ceasefire has been reached in Gaza.

On the domestic front, The Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill is an expensive problem on the select committees’ agenda. It shouldn’t be there.

Christopher Luxon has reshuffled his cabinet to deal with our continuing economic problems, with the biggest loser Melissa Lee, former journalist and producer, resigned to the backbenches… for now.

The NZ broadcasting and wider media industry woes are likely to continue. Next on the block is the NZ Herald, Business Desk and Newstalk ZB. Read here. TVNZ still feels like a walking disaster, while at Warner Bros. Discovery the reality seems far more scripted than factual.

The Government has “put on hold” the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill, citing developing events in Australia as a helpful determiner for a new way forward. Read here. More likely, they caved to the pressure from Google.

The Screen Production and Development Association (SPADA) is still declining to register for collective bargaining under the Screen Industry Workers Act (SIWA), even after a year of active effort from some guilds including us to encourage them to do so.

At the end of last year, DEGANZ made a submission on the Ministry of Culture and Heritage’s draft strategy Amplify. Read here. Our view is that without additional ongoing investment, the government’s aims aren’t achievable. One of those aims is to raise New Zealand’s position to be in the top 25 countries globally for culture and heritage soft power.

Over in the UK, Keir Starmer’s Labour Government has recognised that soft power is a hugely important driver of UK economic growth and security, which deepens their relationships, builds alliances and enhances their global influence. They have established a Soft Power Council and delivered a £60 million investment package to kick-start things. Read here. A Kiwi in the UK messaged me after I reposted the Variety article on Facebook, saying that many there consider the investment a pittance. But look at what just $50 million in Premium Fund funding did for NZ.

In our screen industry, for crew at least, there does seem to be a flow of international productions coming to our shores up to the middle of the year, and some domestic production, albeit much more modestly funded. But for above-the-line, things will continue to be tough, which is why we so desperately need additional funding.

It’s harder than ever to attract international investment into NZ production, including with international streamers who see us as too small a market to put production funding into. We don’t have enough philanthropists to go around, and private equity returns and tax advantages aren’t attractive enough for investors. Without the government stumping up with some solutions, the multi-million dollar question is: Where is additional funding going to come from? If you’ve got an answer to that dilemma, then this year could be rosier for us all.

There’s some light seeping through at the end of the tunnel, though.

I believe most New Zealanders understand that we have a tough 2025 ahead across all sectors. Inflation though is down, interest rates are coming down, and cost of living increases should slow.

The New Zealand Film Commission after four years of instability, which saw three CEOs and three chairs in that period, is finally righting itself. A significant restructure under current CEO Annie Murray sees a new approach and fresh blood on the smaller team, with new guidelines for development funding due in February. The NZFC Terms of Trade are under review and there will be changes there as well.

DEGANZ has been very vocal for change at NZFC across those four years, engaging with management and the board. I thank the current board and leadership team for the recent opportunities to be heard. They have listened. There’s a feeling of optimism in the screen industry air about the film commish that I haven’t experienced for quite some considerable period of time, even though funding is very tight.

A refreshed board at DEGANZ with an editor president in Ben Powdrell—the first since Peter Roberts stepped down in 2016—will drive us into the year ahead, facing the challenges and maximising the opportunities to come.

Welcome to 2025!

 

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

 

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That Time of the Year

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December is upon us again. Before we hit the beaches or mountains, it’s time to reflect on what has been a tumultuous year for the New Zealand screen industry.

On the positive side, we’ve had a great crop of New Zealand films and television, none more so than the Premium Fund drama series After The Party. It swept the NZ TV Awards in all categories and has been extremely well-received internationally. Like the other Premium Fund projects, After The Party shows what we can do when our films and TV have higher levels of investment over what is normally available. It’s truly unfortunate therefore that the Premium Fund, which we lobbied for to continue, has ceased. Premium Fund projects could well do with a review of Return On Investment (ROI), both economic and cultural, as they may highlight to the current economically-focused government the benefits such investments can bring to the coffers and the country.

There has been a lot of content produced this year as thankfully NZ On Air’s funding has not been cut, although how it spends it now creates its own constrictions. Our DEGANZ directors and editors continue to appear in good numbers in films and TV shows going into production, gaining solid box office, good ratings and/or festival accolades. We report on them in our newsletter and encourage you to notify us of any successes for inclusion as we don’t always catch everything.

International productions coming into New Zealand have been a bit up and down over the last year, but the country is reasonably flush with projects now and into the first quarter of 2025. The NZFC has recently returned from their LA promotional tour in a positive mode. We look forward to an update as well as real results from their work, both in regard to international productions shooting here as well as investment into domestic content.

On the downside, the blood-letting continues at TVNZ. Our colleagues there are undergoing another round of job losses as TVNZ fights a losing battle against the tide of advertising going to international platforms. We can only hope that its efforts to become a digital-first media entity help to stem that tide. Unfortunately, I think we are going to see further retraction there in 2025 before we see any semblance of righting the ship, which at this rate is more likely to become a smallish launch.

We finish the year on a positive note funding-wise, though.

According to the NZFC’s annual report just out, they have $13.5 million more in the kitty than anticipated. The NZFC had budgeted for a deficit of $6.2m, but had a surplus of $7.3m instead, so have $13.5m more than budgeted. This is largely due to the fact they spent $12m less on Script Development & Production Funding. They also had $1.25m more interest income than budgeted. However, they plan to spend this and the reserves over the next 4 years. This is good news for the film sector, which has frankly been somewhat depressed. There’s a general feeling in the ether now that we do have a positive and refreshed film commish to deal with, who are making warm fuzzy noises. The results of their industry meetings around new approaches to development and financing—expected to be in place 1 Feb 2025—are much anticipated.

I’m currently in Wellington, post Xmas event here. There was a massive turnout last night and the vibe was surprisingly up with members from all the guilds and associations in attendance. Perhaps the most positive thing I heard though was in the taxi on the way into town from the airport. Wellington, which was decidedly dour when I was last down because of all the job losses, reportedly came alive when the hikoi arrived. It showed the government and New Zealand the depth of feeling towards unity in Aotearoa, and the opposition to the divisiveness that the Treaty Principles Bill is fostering. I hope that invigoration continues here, not just around the passage of the Bill through select committee, but also in regard to the city’s spirit, which has taken quite a battering economically and needs reviving.

The new board and staff at DEGANZ wish you a safe and enjoyable time over Christmas, New Year and the holidays. And we look forward to the ongoing work to represent your creative, cultural and financial interests in 2025.

 

Toitū Te Tiriti

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

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Women and Directing

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We have just wrapped the eighth and last Emerging Women Filmmakers Incubator. This also brings to a close the year-long Incubator programme in its current manifestation as we have been unable to secure funding for it.

In reflecting on women directors working in the scripted space, either in feature film or TV drama, it would seem some improvement has been made from when the Incubator programme began in 2016.

One of the reasons we were prompted to develop the Incubator programme was that there were very few women directing in high-budget scripted drama in New Zealand at the time.

In its 2023 Gender Diversity Report, NZ On Air stated that:

  • Since 2016, male directors have outnumbered female directors. However, 2023 saw the most even split between them since this report began.
  • 50.6% of directing roles were filled by men and 48.2% were filled by females. In 2022, male directors accounted for 53% and female directors made up 46%. […] One project Kainga, which had eight female directors, impacted this data. However, 2023’s figures indicate a significant increase in gender parity from 2016 and 2017’s figures, which showed that men filled around two-thirds of directing roles.

NZ On Air’s stats cover Drama, Documentary and Children’s. While these figures are positive, what is helping these numbers is that more women are directing scripted in the lower budget space—Anecdotally, I think we are safe to say that male directors still dominate in high-budget scripted drama.

Over at NZFC according to statistics I gleaned from their website, of the 12 films funded in the 2015/2016 year for production that went on to get made, five (42%) were directed by women and seven (58%) by men. Interestingly, while women tend to direct more documentary features than men, all seven films directed by men in 2016 were documentary, while only one documentary was directed by a woman.

I need to point out that the numbers I used (from the NZFC website) vary slightly from a published Gender Report by NZFC in September of 2019. In that report, it states that 13 films were funded that year, of which 31% had a woman director and 69% had a male director. It may well be that one of the films ultimately didn’t get made, which is what may have changed the numbers available now.

In this year to date (2023/2024), five (50%) of the funded  films are to be directed by men with two of them documentaries, while five (50%) films will be directed by women, two of them documentaries as well. (NB: The two documentaries attributed to each gender are in fact only two documentaries in total, as they will be co-directed with each having one male director and one female director.)

Across the period from 2015/2016 to 2023/2024, the gender balance in feature film directing became a little more favourable to women.

Of the 89 films funded and made during that period 48 (54%) were directed by men while 41 (46%) were directed by women. (Premium Fund projects are not included here as there were both features and TV series made with the now defunct Premium Fund funding.)

Documentaries directed by women during the period were 19 (56%) of the total of 34 doco films, while men directed 15 (44%) of the 34.

Of course there were swings and roundabouts across that 2015/16 – 2023/24 period both in terms of gender as well as the split between narrative and documentary, but overall there is still a slight weighting towards men directing 48 (54%) films over women directing 41 (46%). Narrative films make up 56 (63%) of the 89 films funded versus 33 (37%) for documentary.

With regard to the Emerging Women Filmmakers Incubator, 54 women went through the programme during the 2015/16 – 2023/24 period.

Five of them have directed features in that time (two completed, two in post and one shooting at the time of writing). All of the women from the Incubator have gone on to direct one or more shorts, web series or scripted series, commercials, or other scripted content. There is undoubtedly more to come, with many features and series in development with them.

I think it’s important to note the time frame of features with an example: In the very first intake of directors into the Incubator in 2016, one of the directors came in with a project that is being shot now in 2024, eight years later.

When we started the Incubator, we stated that the intent of it was to help women directors advance their project and careers. I firmly believe that we, being the guild and the many experienced practitioners from the industry who contributed their time and knowledge to the programme, did that.

But more importantly in my view, was that the Incubator gave women directors the opportunity to grow their skills, capabilities and networks, celebrate their successes, and help to address their concerns and fears in a safe space within a like-minded group they could be open with.

We’ve come a long way in addressing inequity for women directors in our industry. But we still have a ways to go. I’m proud that DEGANZ has played a small part in the progress to date.

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

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