Galleries

On Saturday 6th August at ASB Waterfront Theatre, we watched the year’s best New Zealand short films as chosen by guest selector, Florian Habicht, and then awarded the winners of four Jury Awards in front of a sold out audience. The jury of three, filmmaker and writer Tim Wong, actor Chelsie Preston-Crayford and Flicks.co.nz editor Steve Newall, selected the winner of the $7500 Flicks Best Short Film Award, the $4000 Creative New Zealand Emerging Talent Award and the $4000 Auckland Live Spirit of The Civic Award, and a Special Mention. The winners were: The Flicks Award for Best Short Film: Perianayaki. Directed by Bala Murali Shingade The Creative New Zealand Emerging Talent Award: Perianayaki. Directed by Bala Murali Shingade The Auckland Live Spirit of The Civic Award: Trees, directed by Ben Bryan and Tom Scott Perianayaki actor Jeyagowri Sivakumaran’s performance earned the Special Mention. Congratulations to the filmmakers of Perianayaki, and Trees, and their fellow finalists, Alistair MacDonald, Siobhan Marshall and Tom Furniss. The Audience Award, as voted by the public, will be awarded on the closing night of the festival in Wellington, Sunday 14 August. The winner of the audience vote takes away the Audience Award, consisting of 25 percent of the box office from NZIFF screenings in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

NZIFF 2022 celebrated its Opening Night Gala in Auckland on Thursday 28th July at Tāmaki Makaurau's iconic The Civic. We rolled out the red carpet for the World Premiere of Tearepa Kahi's Muru. Following a powhiri, there were speeches from the Muru crew and speeches from NZIFF's Catherine Fitzgerald (Chair), Sally Woodfield (General Manager), and Michael McDonnell (Head of Programming). Muru is a clear reminder: there will always be taniwha. Some will have eight legs and two heads. Others will be harder to spot. But there will always be those who are ready to fight the taniwha to create greater understanding for the future of Aotearoa. — Dione Joseph. Photography by Veronica McLaughlin.