New Zealand's Best 2021 awards were presented at Embassy Theatre, Wellington on Wednesday 10 November. Four of the six finalist filmmakers joined us in-person, with filmmakers from two films joined us via Zoom. The Vista Group Award for Best Short Film was jointly awarded to When We Were Kids (dir: Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu) and Washday (dir:Kath Akuhata-Brown), the Auckland Live Spirit of The Civic Award went to Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu for When We Were Kids, and the Creative New Zealand Emerging Talent Award went to Awa Puna for Tūī.
The jury comprised Annie Collins, Gaysorn Thavat and Matthew Liebmann.