The Copyright Act Review is back on, with a proposed Stage 1 set of proposals being finessed for feedback. Although we lobbied long and hard on behalf of directors in the previous review started in 2017, the whole review was ultimately put in the too hard basket in 2020 by the government. COVID didn’t help. […]
The Cannes film festival is over for another year. And it’s another year where no New Zealand film got into Official Competition, Critics Week, Director’s Fortnight, or the short film competition. The last NZ feature in Cannes was Cristine Jeff’s Rain 24 years ago, in 2001. Zia Mandviwalla’s Night Shift was the last short film […]
Donald Trump’s tariff threats on film is causing considerable angst globally and extreme nervousness in New Zealand, even though detail is still entirely lacking, apart from Jon Voight’s plan, which seems to have triggered Trump’s reaction. In discussions with the Directors Guild of America two weeks ago, I was informed that production in the US […]
We held a successful Screenlink event last night together with Advertising Producers Aotearoa. The topic was the nature of working across TV commercials, scripted and narrative features. It was interesting to hear about the pathways from some of the people in the room on how they got into, are progressing, or got ahead in the […]
The success of director Miki Magasiva’s Tinā in theatres brings into focus theatrical exhibition at a very relevant time with the Ministry Of Culture and Heritage’s Media Reform Discussion document out for feedback. Tinā ranked the third-biggest opening week for a New Zealand film, behind Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Sione’s 2: Unfinished Business. In […]