Several DEGANZ members are taking the stage at this year’s Big Screen Symposium (BSS), sharing insights into their work and creative practices. Covering everything from drama and documentary features to the creative dynamics of comedy, te reo series, and master’s research into AI, these sessions offer a look at the ideas, processes, and experiences shaping their work as filmmakers.
DEGANZ will have a table at BSS, so come along to say hi and touch base during the coffee and lunch breaks.
Truth Diggers
Developing a creative voice across local and international contexts.
Vea Mafile’o (DEGANZ) and Ursula Grace Williams are two of Aotearoa’s rising filmmakers, with documentary work spanning For My Father’s Kingdom, Lomu, and Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao E Rua – Two Worlds. In this moderated conversation, they reflect on their beginnings and the trajectories that have shaped their practice, explore how stories are carried forward, the realities of working across local and global contexts, and the persistence required for sustaining a creative life.
Feature Firsts
Two emerging directors discuss contemporary learnings from their recent feature debuts.
Callum Devlin (DEGANZ) and Chelsie Preston Crayford reflect on their debut features, The Weed Eaters and Caterpillar, two works that diverge boldly in tone and style. In this moderated conversation with DEGANZ Executive Director Tui Ruwhiu, they will unpack what it means to step up to long-form directing: expanding vision, navigating constraint, leading collaborators, and embracing the discoveries and compromises that shape a first feature in the realities of making work today.
Friends and Neighbours
Australia – New Zealand Creative Collaboration with Causeway Films and The Weed Eaters.
This session brings together the talented New Zealand team behind The Weed Eaters, including director Callum Devlin (DEGANZ), and their Australian Executive Producers, Causeway Films, to explore the many dimensions of collaboration, from grassroots creative partnerships to the realities and possibilities of working across the Tasman. From production and financing through to distribution and discoverability, the conversation examines what each partner brought to the table and how their collaboration expanded the project’s potential.
Seriously Funny Business
Protecting voice, play and risk when developing Screen IP.
DEGANZ board member Jesse Griffin and fellow member Jackie van Beek join this panel of performer-writer-makers to discuss how creatives can protect their voice as commercial pressures and expectations grow louder. Casting a comedy lens over traditional development and production pathways, the session offers practical insights into shaping original ideas for screen, building sustainable creative partnerships, and translating spontaneous comic energy into viable projects capable of connecting with audiences at scale.
Untranslated Selves
Indigenous-language series creators on the power of cultural specificity in a global market.
Bringing together DEGANZ member Richard Curtis & Lea McLean (End of the Valley), Thomas Paʻa Sibbett (Chief of War), and Kiel McNaughton (Tangata Pai), this conversation explores the creative possibilities and practical realities of developing television series partly or wholly in Indigenous languages. From Native Hawaiian to Te Reo Māori, the panel examines how language and culture shape narrative, character and worldview, and what it means to create work that is accountable to community while reaching audiences beyond it.
AI: In Evidence
Exploring AI through practice, research and film – with Screen Music & Sound Guild of Aotearoa.
Filmmaker-researcher Caroline Bell-Booth (DEGANZ) presents early findings from her Master’s research into classifying AI use in New Zealand screen production. Exploring evolving creative workflows, emerging approaches to transparency and the wider implications of AI adoption, her research considers how practical frameworks could support funding agencies, policymakers, practitioners and audiences to make more informed decisions about the use of AI in publicly funded screen production. Caroline is joined by Future Frames co-founder Graeme Revell’s reflections on the opportunities and challenges AI presents for creative practice; the session then turns to Future Frames: NZ AI Short Film Competition.
