DEGANZ Members are Making it Rain

From 100 applications submitted, Script to Screen selected DEGANZ members Pulkit Arora, Armagan Ballantyne, and Jackie van Beek for its new innovative mentorship programme, Rainmakers Aotearoa.

After narrowing applications down, Script to Screen interviewed 12 short-listed applicants to hear more about what they hoped to get from the programme, the type of mentor they were looking for, and where they saw this mentorship taking them in the future. From there, six applications were successful, with five being solo endeavours and Armagan and Jackie participating as a team with the project WONDERLA*.

The initiative aims to nourish Aotearoa’s screen sector by connecting seasoned creatives with the next generation of changemakers. Led by David Court of Compton School in Australia, Rainmakers will be a mix of personalised mentoring, in-person seminars, and online business clinics. The participants will get to collaborate with their Australian counterparts and will attend a seminar during the Melbourne International Film Festival next year. Australian participants will then join the final in-person session in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland at the end of 2025.

Read more about this year’s participants and the programme on Script to Screen’s website.

Congratulations Pulkit, Armagan, and Jackie!

 

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Māori Excellence Celebrated at RIFF

The Rotorua Indigenous Film Festival (RIFF) ran last week, with multiple DEGANZ members’ work screening. The intense, three-day festival is a hub of Indigenous films, networking, and industry workshops. Created and run by Māori filmmakers, the festival is based around the values of manaakitanga and kotakitanga.

Ngā Aho Whakaari’s Aho Shorts 2024 Collection premiered during the festival, including DEGANZ member Richard Curtis‘ short Rapido. Also during the festival, Vea Mafile’o (DEGANZ) spoke on a panel presented by PISA called “You Only Get One Chance,” discussing navigating the screen industry as a Pacific Islands filmmaker in Aotearoa.

RIFF Pitch-Slap

Pitch-Slap is RIFF’s funding opportunity for Māori filmmakers. DEGANZ member Denise Edmonds won last year with her project Mōrearea, which was featured in this year’s screening event.

Mōrearea

Director: Denise Edmonds

A woman is haunted by a mysterious, otherworldly presence that uses earthquakes to communicate. As she’s drawn to a geothermal space, she must confront the spirit and uncover a deeper connection through the waters of another realm.

 

Indigenous Short Film Selection

Lea Tupu’anga / Mother Tongue

Director: Vea Mafile’o

Katherine, a young speech therapist of Tongan and European heritage has lied about her Tongan language skills to work with Siaosi – an elderly Tongan patient with aphasia who has lost his ability to speak English.

 

Ngā Aho Whakaari Short Films

Rapido

Director: Richard Curtis

A Young Māori boy’s fascination with war comics hits closer to home than he ever imagined.

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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!

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