DEGANZ Watch List: Long-Time Favourites and Bold New Stories

,

From iconic rural storytelling and a rebellious schoolyard comedy-drama to a flirty brand collaboration and a powerful story of protest and resilience, this DEGANZ Watch List highlights the breadth of our members’ mahi. These directors are working across Aotearoa’s favourite factual series, new drama and docu series, and commercials.

Check them out below!

Country Calendar

Factual Series

Directors include Howard Taylor, Celia Jaspers & Roz Mason

Take a look at iconic rural Kiwi life in Aotearoa’s longest-running television series, celebrating 60 years in 2026!

 

Feelings Club

Web Series

Writer/Director: Taylor Nixon

When soft-hearted new student Toby arrives at Hawkesworth College, he finds that breaking the rules might be the only thing to help the students at this brutal school. Feelings Club is a short-form comedy-drama series about identity, rebellion, and what happens when young people are finally given permission to be honest.

Episodes 1-6 are out now, with new episodes dropping twice a week on Instagram.

 

Let Thy Swipe Season Begin

Advertisement for Tinder x Netflix

Director: Josh Frizzell

Beautiful State Productions created the latest Tinder ad, in collaboration with Netflix, to celebrate the new season of Bridgerton.

 

Taiarahia: Te Kākahu Tawhito

Documentary Series Trailer

Executive Producer: Kim Webby

DOP: Mike Jonathan

Taiarahia: Te Kākahu Tawhito revisits the 1985 protest and occupation of the sacred mountain Taiarahia in the Ruatoki valley – a stand led by the people of Te Māhurehure hapū to protect their sacred maunga from being stripped of its ancient native forest and replanted with pine for financial gain. Fourty years on, this docu-series reflects on that stand — a powerful reminder that the value of whenua, whakapapa and kotahitanga will always outweigh the value of a dollar.

 

/by

DEGANZ Watch List: Trailer Time

,

This week’s roundup is all about trailers for soon-to-be-released projects by DEGANZ members, including a memorial docu-drama honouring L. Sgt. Haane Manahi DCM, and a sneak peek into the lives of the wahine in a tiny coastal town with a thriving surf community at the bottom of the South Island.

Check out the trailers below. We look forward to seeing these projects when they are out in the world!

Sgt. Haane

Feature Docu-Drama Trailer

Film Editor: Francis Gelnday

The never-before-told true story of Sgt. Haane from award-winning writer and director Tearepa Kahi. This documentary-drama film follows Lance Sgt. Haane Manahi DCM (Te Arawa, Ngāti Raukawa) of B Company, 28th Māori Battalion, a soldier of extraordinary courage, whose actions proved pivotal in the 1943 battle for the fortified summit of Takrouna, Tunisia.

 

Wahine Waveriders

Documentary Trailer

Co-Director, DOP & Drone Pilot: Zyanya Jackson

Wāhine Waveriders is a documentary celebrating 3 generations of the Pou whanau wāhine and their unique relationship with surf culture on the South Island. The film explores their personal connection to the ocean and celebrates its profound impact on physical and emotional recovery. Through the lens of womanhood across three generations, the film highlights the evolving attitudes toward women in surfing.

 

/by

DEGANZ Watch List: Premiere and Returning Series

,

This DEGANZ Watch List features both a new and a returning series, with DEGANZ members as directors and editors on the projects.

Up first is Tom Sainsbury’s new dramedy series, Small Town Scandal, directed by DEGANZ members Ghazaleh Gol and Calvin Sang. The first two episodes of the eight-part season are on SkyGo and Neon now, with new episodes dropping on Mondays.

Next is the third season of Scotty Morrison’s Origins, edited by fellow member Emma Patterson. This season continues his search to understand more about the origins of Māori from voyages across the Pacific Ocean to discovering Aotearoa. You can find episodes one and two on TVNZ+.

Small Town Scandal

Comedy Drama Series

Directors: Ghazaleh Gol and Calvin Sang

Tom Sainsbury brings his hit true-crime parody podcast to the screen. The beloved comedian plays a disgraced journalist-turned-true-crime podcast host investigating the death of his millionaire uncle in a town filled with eccentric suspects.

 

Origins

Factual Series

Directors: Dan Salmon and Whatanui Flavell

Editor: Emma Patterson

Scotty Morrison is back, following in the footsteps of the first explorers and settlers of Aotearoa, as they sailed down from Hawaiki to their new home.

 

/by

DEGANZ Watch List: In Case You Missed It… Motel Murders and Sex Robots

,

In case you missed it… Here are some recent works from DEGANZ members that dropped over the holiday period.

First up is NZ on Air’s latest crime drama, Blue Murder Motel, with DEGANZ member Josh Frizzell as one of the directors of the premiere season.

Quirky sci-fi short PleasureDora, directed and edited by fellow member Mark Prebble, has just been released online. This follows a successful run on the festival circuit, which finished in November 2025 with awards for Best International Film and Best Actor at Reel East Texas Film Festival.

Check them out below.

Blue Murder Motel

Crime Drama Series

Director: Josh Frizzell

When an Aussie cop couple trade their badges for a quiet life managing a beachside motel in New Zealand, they plan to leave police work behind them – that is, until crime comes to them!

 

PleasureDora

Drama Short Film

Director & Editor: Mark Prebble

A glitchy AI love companion from the ‘semi-mature’ range and her lonely final customer confront mortality, second chances, and life on the scrap heap.

 

/by

DEGANZ Watch List: Māori Stories on the Big and Small Screen

,

This week’s DEGANZ Watch List features Māori stories on both the big and small screen.

While local drama web series Ahikāroa is heating up with its seventh season, new docuseries, Earth Oven with Temuera Morrison, digs deep to explore how indigenous cultures from around the globe have used thermal cooking. Meanwhile, if you missed the chance to see Chelsea Winstanley’s directorial debut, TOITŪ: Visual Sovereignty, at this year’s Whānau Mārama NZIFF, you can catch it in cinemas across the mōtu now.

Find out more about how DEGANZ members are involved below!

 

Ahikāroa

Bilingual Drama Web Series

Shadow Director: Te Waiarangi Ratana

Co-Editor: Jack Woon

Storyliners: Onehou Strickland and Te Waiarangi Ratana

Ahikāroa is back for its seventh season, picking up on all the drama from last season’s cliffhanger. Check out the latest episodes following the lives of urban-based rangatahi in Aotearoa.

 

Earth Oven with Temuera Morrison

Documentary Series

Editor: Ben Wildish

Director of Photography: Mike Jonathan

Temuera Morrison is hungry, and he’s using his favourite kai as a vehicle to head off on a globe-trotting adventure. Tem will visit indigenous communities from all around the world to uncover how earth ovens have shaped their cultures.

 

TOITŪ: Visual Sovereignty

Documentary Feature

Editors: Cushla Dillon, Brendon Chan, and Huhana Ruri-Panapa

Director of Photography: Mike Jonathan

TOITŪ: Visual Sovereignty, the debut directorial feature from Academy Award-nominated producer Chelsea Winstanley, goes behind the scenes of the largest Māori art exhibition in Aotearoa New Zealand’s history. Following curator Nigel Borell’s vision for Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art, the film captures both its record-breaking success and the behind-the-scenes conflicts that arise when Indigenous sovereignty challenges institutional power. Featuring rare access and the voices of celebrated artists such as Shane Cotton, Emily Karaka, Taika Waititi, Brett Graham, Ngahina Hohaia, the Mataaho Collective and Reuben Paterson, this is a powerful portrait of cultural resilience and authorship.

TOITŪ: Visual Sovereignty is out in local cinemas now! Find a screening near you here.

 

/by