Galleries

We celebrated the screening of the documentary Signed, Theo Schoon at the City Gallery. Sally Woodfield hosted the Q&A to follow the screening with director Luit Bieringa.

The Ngā Whanaunga Māori Pasifika Shorts Wellington screening was held at The Roxy Cinema. Several filmmakers were able to attend, with the others joining via Zoom for a virtual Q&A after the screening. Curator Leo Koziol hosted the event with the Wellington UNESCO City of Film Award presented by Tanya Black and jury member Victor Rodger. Maruia Jensen was awarded the Wellington UNESCO City of Film Award for Best Film in the tenth annual Ngā Whanaunga Māori Pasifika Shorts competition, for her film Disconnected. The jury also awarded a special mention to cinematographer Elise Lanigan for film fire in the water, fire in the sky.

We celebrated 2021 Arts Foundation Laureate and recipient of the Dame Gaylene Preston Award for Documentary Filmmakers Florian Habicht in Wellington with a special screening of his cult classic __Woodenhead__ at the first ever viewing of the new colourised version.

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.