NZIFF: Arora and Brooks’ Successful Shorts

NZIFF announced the final awards and special mentions during the festival’s Wellington run, with DEGANZ members Pulkit Arora and Douglas Brooks being recognised for their mahi.

Pulkit won the hearts of audiences across the country with his short film Anu, earning him the NZ’s Best 2023 Audience award. The film’s unique perspective of a widow immigrating to Aotearoa through managed isolation proved universal with its exploration of grief. With the accolade, he will receive 25% of the box office revenue from the NZ’s Best screenings in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin. This is Pulkit’s second win for Anu during NZIFF, after receiving the Creative New Zealand Emerging Talent award at the Auckland screening of the shorts programme.

Meanwhile, Douglas received a Special Mention award for Kōkako during the Wellington screening of the Ngā Whanaunga Māori Pasifika Shorts. His short follows an aspiring ornithologist into the New Zealand bush. While searching for a thought-to-be-extinct bird, she learns of her grandmother’s death and must process the loss while isolated in the wilderness.

Congrats Pulkit and Douglas; what a great way to wrap up the awards section of the festival!

NZIFF is still running throughout Aotearoa until 10 Sept; don’t miss the chance to enjoy some great cinema in your town before it closes.

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‘Kāinga’ is Coming Back Home

Kāinga is returning to Aotearoa! Following the feature’s premiere at NZIFF last year and its international festival run (including MIFF, HIFF, and IFFI Goa) the film will return to Kiwi screens on Radio New Zealand (RNZ). DEGANZ members Michelle Ang (Incubator 2020), Ghazaleh Golbaksh (Incubator 2021), Julie Zhu, and Nahyeon Lee (Incubator 2021) each directed one of eight stories in the anthology film. Fellow member Mia Maramara (Incubator 2022) was a writer on the project along with Ghazaleh and Nahyeon.

The film roots itself in a single Kiwi home, and glimpses into the joys and struggles of the various families who live there across five decades, bringing Pan-Asian women’s narratives to the forefront. From exploring the historical connection to tangata whenua, to coping with isolation and dissatisfaction, to excitement about making home and finding community support, to finally claiming home, the film does not shy away from the challenges of the immigrant experience in Aotearoa.

You can catch Kāinga on RNZ, free to view from 20 August.

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Don’t be Frightened! ‘You’re Out’ is In (FrightFest)

DEGANZ member Chaz Harris‘ latest short film, You’re Out, is having its European premiere as one of the 13 international short films in the 2023 FrightFest in London. It will screen in the Centreframe Short Film Showcase #1 at the Cineworld Leicester Square. This exciting news follows the film’s recent semi-finalist success at the Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival in the US.

In You’re Out, a masked assailant torments a closeted gay man, threatening to out him. Chaz was the writer, director, and producer on the project, which was the first production made through his Wellington-based production company Prosean Pictures.

The film will fit in well with the other genre pieces at FrightFest. The festival is one of the world’s largest horror and fantasy film festivals, bringing genre filmmakers and fans together to celebrate the weird and wonderful.

The festival’s co-director Alan Jones commented,

[FrightFest is about showing] that the most unexpected and delightful discoveries happen when wide-ranging topics, different people, and varied cultures come together in horror harmony. FrightFesters will experience an amazing variety of films, in an eclectic line-up which serves as a powerful tool of democracy, activism, diversity, inclusivity and social awareness.

The festival has featured many big-name horror films and directors over the years, including the UK Premiere of Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth. The world-renowned director has since dubbed the festival the ‘Woodstock of gore.’

Check out the trailer for You’re Out here.

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‘The Convert’ to Premiere at TIFF

The Convert, edited by DEGANZ member Luke Haigh, is premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September.

The New Zealand-Australia production stars Guy Pearce as Thomas Munro, a lay preacher ministering to a British settlement in 1830s Aotearoa. His violent past as a soldier is questioned, and his faith is put to the test as he finds himself caught in a long-standing battle between two Māori iwi.

The action-filled historical epic will screen as a special presentation at TIFF alongside some of this year’s biggest films, including the Cannes Palme d’Or winner and NZIFF opener Anatomy of a Fall. TIFF describes these special presentations as high-profile premieres from the world’s leading filmmakers.

TIFF is a not-for-profit cultural organisation dedicated to creating transformational experiences for film lovers and creators of all ages and backgrounds. Since its founding in 1976, the festival has become one of the world’s largest and most prestigious international film festivals.

Congratulations to Luke and the team for the international premiere!

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NZ’s Best: Short Films, Big Screen

Congratulations to the winners of NZIFF’s NZ’s Best 2023 awards, including DEGANZ members Pulkit Arora and Jaimee Poipoi! After the six finalist films premiered, the jury (including DEGANZ member Peter Roberts) announced the winners.

For Anu, Pulkit won the Creative New Zealand Emerging Talent award with a $4,000 cash prize. The jury commented:

Writer-director Pulkit Arora has crafted a soulful and sensitively-wrought portrait of a woman literally and figuratively isolated in her grief. Movingly uncovering the oft-dismissed residual pain of the pandemic era, Anu discovers the cinematic hidden within the drab of an anonymous quarantine hotel. Aided by an exquisite lead performance from Prabha Ravi, Arora firmly announces himself as a fresh talent to watch.

Hey Brainy Man, co-produced by Jaimee, won the $7,500 NZIFF Patrons Award for Best Short Film. The jury’s comments were:

Formally daring, bitterly humorous and dreamily unsettling, Hey Brainy Man is a heady alchemical mix of absurdist flourishes and clearheaded warnings about humankind’s hubris. Backed by an endearingly batty chorus of Neanderthals, directors Randerson and Taylor are clear in their messaging, sounding the alarm without ever succumbing to overt or obvious preachiness. The film’s final note is one of dreadsoaked foreboding, lingering in the mind long after it’s subjects have faded into the ether.

Additionally, DOP Adam Luxton, who worked on both Anu and Hey Brainy Man, received a special mention for his cinematography.

The Audience Award, voted for by the public, will be given on the closing night of the festival in Wellington. The winner will receive 25% of box office sales from NZIFF screenings in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin. Non-Auckland festival goers, make sure you get to NZ’s Best and vote for your favourite film of the bunch!

Well done to the award winners and their fellow finalists! We are already excited to see next year’s selection.

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