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

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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.

 

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Pike River’s Emotional and Rewarding Opening Week

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Pike River, directed by Rob Sarkies (DEGANZ) and edited by fellow member Peter Roberts, has had a well-deserved, smashing opening week. Not only has the feature grossed half a million at the box office, but it has also touched the hearts of audiences and earned a stream of positive reviews.

Dame Gaylene Preston reviewed the film for RNZ, saying,

This is mature filmmaking in the hands of a committed director with experience and empathy. The mark of a good director is that everyone does their best work, in front and behind the camera. […] The domestic world of the families become somehow elevated, as the personal experiences of Sonya Rockhouse and Anna Osbourne become central and heroic.

Rob, along with writer Fiona Samuel and the women behind the story, Anna Osborne and Sonya Rockhouse, have been travelling the motu for a series of screenings and Q&As. While celebrating the film and the creative team behind it, Rob maintains focus on Anna and Sonya’s ongoing story. As the film earns its fair share of applause and congratulations, the women receive it in equal parts, if not more, with teary-eyed standing ovations.

Congratulations to Rob, Peter, and the whole Pike River team on the successful release!

You can find a screening of Pike River near you here (remember to bring tissues)!

 

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Burstyn, Mikha & Murdie Win at NZCS Awards

The 8th annual New Zealand Cinematographers Society (NZCS) Awards took place on 18 October 2025 in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, with DEGANZ members Thomas Burstyn NZCS CSC, Benjamin Mikha, and Joe Murdie taking home awards.

The NZCS Awards were established in 2016 to celebrate and honour outstanding cinematography from Aotearoa. The awards offer cinematographers the opportunity to have their work recognised by their peers and the wider industry across a range of genres, formats, and budgets. Each category presents a gold, silver, and bronze award, recognising filmmakers at multiple career levels.

Thomas won Silver for International Drama and Drama Series for his work on Invasion (S2, Ep 10 Old Friend, New Frontiers). The Apple TV series follows what happens when aliens visit Earth and threaten humanity’s existence. The show unfolds in real time through the eyes of five ordinary people across the globe as they struggle to make sense of the chaos unravelling around them.

Both Benjamin and Joe won Silver Awards in the Social Media & Online Category. Benjamin won for his work on The Warrior Within, a minute-long video about the art of fire knife dancing filmed in Oahu, Hawai’i. Joe took home the silver for his micro-doc ZƎDYN, which follows a young skatboarde from Wānaka.

Benjamin also won Gold in the Specialised Category for his work on Inhabitants, a compilation of time-lapse, hyper-lapse, motion control time-lapse, and drive-lapse footage from around the world.

On the night, DEGANZ Executive Director, Tui Ruwhiu, presented the Short Film, News & Current Affairs, Magazine, Lifestyle & Reality, and Corporate, Brand & Promo Awards.

DEGANZ ED Tui Ruwhiu presents Adam Luxton with an NZCS Silver Award for Short Films.

Congratulations, Thomas, Benjamin, Joe, and all winners at the 2025 NZCS Awards!

 

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DEGANZ Watch List: Kiwi Zombies & Kiwi Teachers

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Another newsletter, another DEGANZ Watch List! This time, DEGANZ members are behind the new comedy series Bloke of the Apocalypse and the latest season of Educators. Both shows offer a cheeky look into classic Kiwi culture and propose that maybe the attitudes of younger generations can teach the adults something new.

DEGANZ Board President Ben Powdrell co-produced the new animated web series, Bloke of the Apocalypse. The series is inspired by series creator Charlie Foulks’ childhood growing up in Gisborne on a sheep farm and his love for the zombie genre. What transpires is a silly series that lovingly pokes fun at the classic Kiwi bloke.

Beloved comedy series Educators is back for its fourth season. Co-created by Jackie van Beek (DEGANZ) and board member Jesse Griffin, and directed by Jesse, the series peeks into the staffroom of Aotearoa’s most questionable teachers. Despite being responsible for the next generation’s education, these adults are often more troubled than the kids they teach.

Check them out below!

 

Bloke of the Apocalypse

Animated Web Series

Co-Producer: Ben Powdrell (DEGANZ Board President)

In the rural back blocks of New Zealand, a father and son battle a zombie apocalypse and some annoying neighbours, all while taking care of their pet lamb, Lambie.

 

Educators

Comedy Series

Created and Written by Jackie van Beek, Jesse Griffin (DEGANZ Board), and Johnny Brugh

Director: Jesse Griffin (DEGANZ Board)

Set behind the scenes of an ordinary Kiwi secondary school, this comedy favourite follows the hopelessly and hilariously inept staff in charge of educating the next generation. Season four is out now!

 

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Misty Flicks Celebrates Waikato Filmmakers

DEGANZ was a proud sponsor of Misty Flicks Film Festival this year, and is excited to join them in celebrating the 2025 award winners, including multiple of our members.

Misty Flicks is a not-for-profit organisation that supports film and filmmakers in the Waikato & Central North Island of Aotearoa. Each year since 2018, it has hosted the festival to uplift local filmmakers and share their work with audiences. This year, the three-day festival included a range of screenings, Q&As, filmmaker talks, as well as the awards ceremony.

Here are the DEGANZ members who won at this year’s awards ceremony:

Best Director – Misty Flicks Challenge Award

Adam Harvey

Snowfall

Best Documentary – Short Film

Phillida Perry

Good Kunst

Best Director – Short Film

Phillida Perry

Good Kunst

Outstanding Female Filmmaker – Short Film

Phillida Perry

Breaking the Mould

 

Additionally, DEGANZ member Mark Prebble‘s PleasureDora took home the awards for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively, for Edwin Wright and Marion Prebble’s performances. James Fink-Jensen produced and edited the short Faces, which won Best Short Film and Best Production Design. Meanwhile, fellow member Ashley Pitman‘s The Box received an honourable mention.

Congratulations to all the winners!

 

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