That Time of the Year

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December is upon us again. Before we hit the beaches or mountains, it’s time to reflect on what has been a tumultuous year for the New Zealand screen industry.

On the positive side, we’ve had a great crop of New Zealand films and television, none more so than the Premium Fund drama series After The Party. It swept the NZ TV Awards in all categories and has been extremely well-received internationally. Like the other Premium Fund projects, After The Party shows what we can do when our films and TV have higher levels of investment over what is normally available. It’s truly unfortunate therefore that the Premium Fund, which we lobbied for to continue, has ceased. Premium Fund projects could well do with a review of Return On Investment (ROI), both economic and cultural, as they may highlight to the current economically-focused government the benefits such investments can bring to the coffers and the country.

There has been a lot of content produced this year as thankfully NZ On Air’s funding has not been cut, although how it spends it now creates its own constrictions. Our DEGANZ directors and editors continue to appear in good numbers in films and TV shows going into production, gaining solid box office, good ratings and/or festival accolades. We report on them in our newsletter and encourage you to notify us of any successes for inclusion as we don’t always catch everything.

International productions coming into New Zealand have been a bit up and down over the last year, but the country is reasonably flush with projects now and into the first quarter of 2025. The NZFC has recently returned from their LA promotional tour in a positive mode. We look forward to an update as well as real results from their work, both in regard to international productions shooting here as well as investment into domestic content.

On the downside, the blood-letting continues at TVNZ. Our colleagues there are undergoing another round of job losses as TVNZ fights a losing battle against the tide of advertising going to international platforms. We can only hope that its efforts to become a digital-first media entity help to stem that tide. Unfortunately, I think we are going to see further retraction there in 2025 before we see any semblance of righting the ship, which at this rate is more likely to become a smallish launch.

We finish the year on a positive note funding-wise, though.

According to the NZFC’s annual report just out, they have $13.5 million more in the kitty than anticipated. The NZFC had budgeted for a deficit of $6.2m, but had a surplus of $7.3m instead, so have $13.5m more than budgeted. This is largely due to the fact they spent $12m less on Script Development & Production Funding. They also had $1.25m more interest income than budgeted. However, they plan to spend this and the reserves over the next 4 years. This is good news for the film sector, which has frankly been somewhat depressed. There’s a general feeling in the ether now that we do have a positive and refreshed film commish to deal with, who are making warm fuzzy noises. The results of their industry meetings around new approaches to development and financing—expected to be in place 1 Feb 2025—are much anticipated.

I’m currently in Wellington, post Xmas event here. There was a massive turnout last night and the vibe was surprisingly up with members from all the guilds and associations in attendance. Perhaps the most positive thing I heard though was in the taxi on the way into town from the airport. Wellington, which was decidedly dour when I was last down because of all the job losses, reportedly came alive when the hikoi arrived. It showed the government and New Zealand the depth of feeling towards unity in Aotearoa, and the opposition to the divisiveness that the Treaty Principles Bill is fostering. I hope that invigoration continues here, not just around the passage of the Bill through select committee, but also in regard to the city’s spirit, which has taken quite a battering economically and needs reviving.

The new board and staff at DEGANZ wish you a safe and enjoyable time over Christmas, New Year and the holidays. And we look forward to the ongoing work to represent your creative, cultural and financial interests in 2025.

 

Toitū Te Tiriti

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

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Women and Directing

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We have just wrapped the eighth and last Emerging Women Filmmakers Incubator. This also brings to a close the year-long Incubator programme in its current manifestation as we have been unable to secure funding for it.

In reflecting on women directors working in the scripted space, either in feature film or TV drama, it would seem some improvement has been made from when the Incubator programme began in 2016.

One of the reasons we were prompted to develop the Incubator programme was that there were very few women directing in high-budget scripted drama in New Zealand at the time.

In its 2023 Gender Diversity Report, NZ On Air stated that:

  • Since 2016, male directors have outnumbered female directors. However, 2023 saw the most even split between them since this report began.
  • 50.6% of directing roles were filled by men and 48.2% were filled by females. In 2022, male directors accounted for 53% and female directors made up 46%. […] One project Kainga, which had eight female directors, impacted this data. However, 2023’s figures indicate a significant increase in gender parity from 2016 and 2017’s figures, which showed that men filled around two-thirds of directing roles.

NZ On Air’s stats cover Drama, Documentary and Children’s. While these figures are positive, what is helping these numbers is that more women are directing scripted in the lower budget space—Anecdotally, I think we are safe to say that male directors still dominate in high-budget scripted drama.

Over at NZFC according to statistics I gleaned from their website, of the 12 films funded in the 2015/2016 year for production that went on to get made, five (42%) were directed by women and seven (58%) by men. Interestingly, while women tend to direct more documentary features than men, all seven films directed by men in 2016 were documentary, while only one documentary was directed by a woman.

I need to point out that the numbers I used (from the NZFC website) vary slightly from a published Gender Report by NZFC in September of 2019. In that report, it states that 13 films were funded that year, of which 31% had a woman director and 69% had a male director. It may well be that one of the films ultimately didn’t get made, which is what may have changed the numbers available now.

In this year to date (2023/2024), five (50%) of the funded  films are to be directed by men with two of them documentaries, while five (50%) films will be directed by women, two of them documentaries as well. (NB: The two documentaries attributed to each gender are in fact only two documentaries in total, as they will be co-directed with each having one male director and one female director.)

Across the period from 2015/2016 to 2023/2024, the gender balance in feature film directing became a little more favourable to women.

Of the 89 films funded and made during that period 48 (54%) were directed by men while 41 (46%) were directed by women. (Premium Fund projects are not included here as there were both features and TV series made with the now defunct Premium Fund funding.)

Documentaries directed by women during the period were 19 (56%) of the total of 34 doco films, while men directed 15 (44%) of the 34.

Of course there were swings and roundabouts across that 2015/16 – 2023/24 period both in terms of gender as well as the split between narrative and documentary, but overall there is still a slight weighting towards men directing 48 (54%) films over women directing 41 (46%). Narrative films make up 56 (63%) of the 89 films funded versus 33 (37%) for documentary.

With regard to the Emerging Women Filmmakers Incubator, 54 women went through the programme during the 2015/16 – 2023/24 period.

Five of them have directed features in that time (two completed, two in post and one shooting at the time of writing). All of the women from the Incubator have gone on to direct one or more shorts, web series or scripted series, commercials, or other scripted content. There is undoubtedly more to come, with many features and series in development with them.

I think it’s important to note the time frame of features with an example: In the very first intake of directors into the Incubator in 2016, one of the directors came in with a project that is being shot now in 2024, eight years later.

When we started the Incubator, we stated that the intent of it was to help women directors advance their project and careers. I firmly believe that we, being the guild and the many experienced practitioners from the industry who contributed their time and knowledge to the programme, did that.

But more importantly in my view, was that the Incubator gave women directors the opportunity to grow their skills, capabilities and networks, celebrate their successes, and help to address their concerns and fears in a safe space within a like-minded group they could be open with.

We’ve come a long way in addressing inequity for women directors in our industry. But we still have a ways to go. I’m proud that DEGANZ has played a small part in the progress to date.

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

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Trumped… Again

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Well, it’s done and dusted. We have another Trump presidency. So what does that mean for our screen industry?

Unfortunately, it would seem we have a volatile future in store.

As Trump has been telling us pretty much from Day 1, he wants to ‘Make America Great Again’.

He’s clearly indicated he wants to put tariffs on exports into the US market. For New Zealand, that could mean a 10 – 20% tariff on our NZ$8.8 billion exports to there. That will hurt our economy further and it’s already fragile. Shifting to other export markets may not be enough. The current government has instituted many cuts, including to a number of our cultural funding institutions, in its efforts to turn the economy around. With our exports suffering, we can expect little support and possibly more belt tightening in the arts and culture sector.

The Hollywood studios will benefit from the touted reduction in US corporate taxes from 21% to 15%. And they already have the ability to immediately write off the full cost of film and TV productions that a Trump bill introduced last time. But Hollywood hasn’t proven itself a friend to Trump, with many high profile celebrities and guilds openly backing Harris. We know Trump can be vindictive, as evidenced by his threats and or actions against CNN, Disney’s ABC and CBS. Many in Hollywood and the entertainment industry will undoubtedly be seeking shelter as he lashes out at anybody who went against him this election. Instability in the US entertainment sector means instability in the global entertainment sector, including for us.

The New Zealand Film Commission has a planned LA Showcase coming up in the next month. With so much uncertainty about to ensue in Hollywood, now may not be the best time to head there to drum up business.

Undoubtedly, one aim of any NZFC visit to LA would be to encourage more runaway production to New Zealand. However, one thing that may result from a Trump presidency is more studio production staying stateside, to help ‘Make America Great Again’. The international production pipeline in New Zealand from the second quarter of next year is already looking dicey. If the majority of now reduced US production stays there, a drop in internationals coming to NZ combined with an already slim funding stream for domestic production doesn’t bode well for us.

It’s hard at this point to see any upside for the New Zealand screen industry from a Trump win. Our best hope at this point is that we don’t experience a downside, even though there are signs that it may well be in the offing.

 

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

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Our Annual Trade Mission to France

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In May of 2024 in France, New Zealand showcased export products, and promoted inbound investment into New Zealand at the largest industry market event of its kind in the world for this particular sector.

The trade mission was attended by industry partners, global conglomerates, foreign government entities and individual businesses looking to partner with New Zealand.

The event is called the Marché du Film or Cannes Film Market. The NZ trade mission was hosted by the New Zealand Film Commission. They do it every year.

Now a lot of people, NZ film industry people included, have a very uninformed view of what goes on at the Cannes Film Market, thinking it’s a rosé-drinking soirée where people swan about at a beachside town on the French Riviera having fun.

Even worse, outfits like the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union are more than uninformed.

The New Zealand Film Commission got slammed by the Taxpapers’ Union for sending four staff to the most important film business market in the world and spending $145,354.81 for the whole thing. Read about it here.

I have been fortunate to attend the Cannes Film Market multiple times, and I can tell you that nobody works harder of all the New Zealanders who attend than the NZFC staff who go there.

They work their butts off helping NZ filmmakers and companies connect with the right people, while promoting our films, locations and industry, and developing and building networks within the international film arena that will benefit us all, both culturally and economically. And a good part of this work is done through the events they host—which are in competition with many other such events going on each day during the market. I believe the funding NZFC puts into the Cannes Film Market is money well spent.

Yes, there is lots of rosé drinking done, and there are lots of parties during the Cannes Film Market as well as all the specific business-focused events. But it is the entertainment industry and it is show business. Nearly all the events in Cannes—and there are hundreds—are mostly done with a purpose: to do film business.

Everybody is on the hussle, 24 hours a day, trying to get deals done across breakfast in the morning, lunch during the day, dinner in the evening, in the meetings and events that are happening all day and night, as well as on the dance floor at 2AM with a glass of champagne in hand at some swanky multi-millionaire’s residence in the hills, or on a luxury yacht in the harbour that you’ve been fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to get invited to. You never know who you are going to meet, when and where, to help get that next project going.

We Create (former Copyright Council), of which DEGANZ is a member, has done a stellar job reframing the NZ creative sector by talking up its economic value as well, so that those in government without a creative bent and understanding can more easily get our industry.

Perhaps as I did at the beginning of this piece, NZFC should rename its festival and market attendances as trade missions for the same reason.

 

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

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TVNZ’s Woes, Our Pain

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TVNZ has to find another $30 million in savings.

Advertising revenue fleeing to offshore companies operating digital platforms is just one of the broadcaster’s major issues.

While audience viewing habits are stabilising on platforms in New Zealand, free-to-air broadcasting as we know it is going into its death rattle here.

It looks like all efforts are on building up TVNZ+. Finally.

But we have to ask the big question here: How did successive boards at TVNZ fail to identify the issues and not get the broadcaster onto the even keel the Government is asking for long before now?

The writing has been on the wall for years internationally. And we all know that if offshore markets catch a cold, we get the flu, or even worse, pneumonia.

Are we now truly seeing the problems of the commercial public broadcaster model and the separate public TV and radio service really coming home to roost?

TVNZ’s proposal to shutter its online news operation to focus solely on video might seem like a good strategic move, but it’s going to strengthen the already powerful The Herald, Stuff, and now RNZ, who has grown website traffic significantly. At the same time, Stuff, who is now doing Three news, is going to focus more on video, too, it seems. It could well be that with TVNZ downsizing, we all might see less a merger and more a takeover of TVNZ by RNZ.

So what  do TVNZ’s current woes mean for those of us operating in the independent sector?

Well, obviously they’ve got less money to play with, so they are already paying less in license fees for local content. That’s possibly going to get worse.

We’ve seen a couple of hundred or more highly proficient storytellers lose their jobs at TVNZ and Warner Bros. Discovery in recent times. If they’ve stuck around and still want to tell stories on screen, whoever’s left will likely be going after the limited pool of funding like everybody else. That number will undoubtedly increase if more jobs go at TVNZ in the next planned restructure.

With audiences fracturing, and NZ On Air committed to it diversity and inclusion funding strategy and unwilling to put up much in the way of equity investment, budgets for most NZ shows are going to remain low. That means continuing low rates of pay for everyone in domestic production without that illusive offshore money filling the financing gap.

Over at Warner Bros. Discovery NZ, things don’t seem a whole lot better.

In August this year it announced a $138.2 million loss for the 12 months ended December 2023. Meanwhile in the same month, The Wall Street Journal reported its parent company in the US suffered an 11% plunge in its share price after a US$9.1 billion write-down of its TV assets, sparking doubts about its broadcasting business.

How much longer is the US$41 billion-in-debt parent going to put up with its loss-making Kiwi child?

Adding to the problems: Google rattled the cages last week—again—threatening to stop promoting New Zealand news content and stop deals with local newsrooms if the government goes ahead with the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill. Read about it on RNZ here.

It does seem, though, that our current Government isn’t operating on much more than a hope and a prayer for the screen sector—just like the last one to be honest—that things will get better all by themselves.

Pain is a relative word in our business, as we are all into an element of figurative self-flagellation anyway in pursuit of our passion to create stories for screen.

Look for that uncomfortable feeling to continue for the near future without divine intervention.

 

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

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