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The films will compete for four cash prizes, with winners to be announced at the closing night event of the Auckland leg of NZIFF. The six finalists are Cold Snap (dir: Leo Woodhead), Eleven (dir: Abigail Greenwood), Over the Moon (dir: James Cunningham), Ross & Beth (dir: Hamish Bennett), School Night (dirs: Leon Wadham and Eli Kent) and U.F.O. (dir: Gregory King).

The New Zealand’s Best programme will screen as part of our 2014 line-up and audiences will be encouraged to vote for their favourite short. The 2014 Audience Award winner in Auckland and Wellington will take away 25% of the box office from the Festival screenings in the four main centres.

In addition, a jury will select the winner for each of three awards – The Madman Entertainment Jury Prize (cash prize of $5,000 for the best New Zealand Short Film); The Friends of the Civic Short Film Award for distinctive creative achievement (cash prize of $3,000). A special jury of cinematographers will select the winner of the inaugural Allen Guilford Cinematography Award from the New Zealand Cinematographers Society (NZCS) which includes a cash prize of $2,000.

Guest selector and international filmmaker Andrew Adamson selected the six finalists from a shortlist

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Including work from Studio Ghibli master Takahata Isao and visual magician Jean-Pierre Jeunet, this mix of hypnotic and hilarious films already guarantees that NZIFF 2014 will be a memorable one.

The titles are:

The Tale of The Princess Kaguya
Hot on the heels of Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises comes another animated masterpiece. Studio Ghibli co-founder Takahata’s rich and astonishing swansong vividly brings an ancient Japanese folktale to life.

The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (3D)
The director of Amelie and Delicatessen takes to 3D and delights with his abundant visual wit in this tale of a ten-year-old boy genius’s attempts to understand his weird family and the even weirder wider world.

The New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) New Zealand’s Best short film competition will now have a combined prize pool of over $14,500 with the addition of a cinematography prize in 2014.

The inaugural Allen Guilford Cinematography Award has been initiated in honour of the late Allen Guilford by the New Zealand Cinematographers Society (NZCS). The prize will include a cash prize of $2,000, a unique crafted and engraved Pan Glass, and a one year membership to NZCS.

The Award is the latest addition to NZIFF’s only competition strand. The Madman Entertainment Jury Prize, a cash prize of $5,000 for the Best New Zealand Short Film, The Friends of the Civic Short Film Award for distinctive creative achievement, a cash prize of $3,000 and the Audience Award, 25% of the net box office takings from the screenings in the four main centres (in 2013 valued at $4,500), will also be awarded at the closing night of NZIFF in Auckland. In 2014 the combined prize pool for NZ’s Best short film competition will be approximately $14,500.

NZCS will provide a three member jury to judge the award-winning short film. The Allen Guilford Cinematography Award will be presented by the NZCS president

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