New Zealand Movie at 2016 Berlin Film Festival
The New Zealand movie Mahana/The Patriarch is one of the ten movies at the 66th Berlin Film Festival The Guardian is most looking forward to. The Patriarch, set in the 1960s, was shot…
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A Love Of All New Zealand Movies
“To the unaware, movie titles like Whale Rider and Once Were Warriors are well-made, entertaining yarns about Maoris. But to Charles Eggen, 78, they rank among his favorites — not just because they’re good…
Finola Dwyer Building on Success of Brooklyn
Celebrating six BAFTA nominations and three Oscar nominations, Wildgaze Films duo Wellington-born Finola Dwyer and Briton Amanda Posey look back at Brooklyn’s journey and ahead to their future slate and ambitions. Brooklyn was launched at…
David Farrier’s Doco Tickled a Hit with Critics
New investigative documentary, the “engrossing” Tickled, co-directed by New Zealanders David Farrier and Dylan Reeve, has received rave reviews from critics and punters after its premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Farrier and Dylan Reeve’s…
Thor director Taika Waititi an Indie Powerhouse
“As a director, got an impeccable ability to balance painful earnestness with biting humour,” Angela Watercutter writes for WIRED. “And as a comedy writer and actor, he produces jokes that land…
Hunt for the Wilderpeople is Perfectly Balanced
Taika Waititi’s film adaptation of Barry Crump’s Wild Pork and Watercress, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, which made its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, is a “deliciously good time at the movies,” according to…
Top of the Lake Season 2 to Start Filming This Spring
“It’s been almost three years since Top of the Lake first aired and it’s still hard to shake the series’ sense of creeping dread”, writes Jacob Stolworthy in an article on The Independent. Lead actress…
Sundance Welcomes Taika Waititi’s Latest
Taika Waititi’s new film Hunt for the Wilderpeople, a dramatisation of Barry Crump’s 1986 novel, Wild Pork and Watercress, has premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Boy director Waititi returns with the road comedy…
Heath Cozens Breaks Stereotypes with Doglegs
Disabled athletes fight the non-disabled in New Zealand director Heath Cozens’ award-winning documentary Doglegs which provides an outlet for five determined wrestlers to escape the prejudice they face in everyday life, the Guardian reports. It…
Lesley Vanderwalt’s Mad Max Work up for BAFTA
If the hair and makeup from the post-apocalyptic science-fiction film Mad Max: Fury Road looks out of this world, it very well might be, according to the Los Angeles Times. That’s because hair and…
Manu Bennett and Jed Brophy Take up Noalath
In a Shannara Chronicles “Behind the Scenes” MTV video, New Zealanders Manu Bennett, who plays the druid Allanon, and Jed Brophy, demon king Dagda Mor, reveal their thoughts about the made-up language entitled Noalath…
Jemaine Clement the Protagonist
New Zealand actor Jemaine Clement’s performance in the “not quite rom-com” People Places Things “is understated, often characterised by the type of deadpan wit familiar to fans of his breakout HBO series Flight of…
Brain-Eating Rose McIver Owns TV Role
New Zealander Rose McIver, star of iZombie, one of the Los Angeles Times’ best new television shows of 2015, is “incognito as a coroner’s assistant, find the space between Veronica Mars and Buffy the…
Peter Jackson-Backed Movie Museum Wins Approval
“Hobbits, Orcs, Ents and maybe even some Na’vi are getting their own museum in New Zealand’s capital city,” writes Nancy Tartaglione in an article for Deadline. The project – a combined movie museum…
Rachel Hunter’s Tour of Beauty
New Zealander Rachel Hunter, once one of the world’s most-photographed supermodels, is now on a quest to discover the secrets of lasting beauty, great health and extraordinary longevity in diverse cultures around the world,…
New Zealand a Majestic Set for Shannara Chronicles
MTV’s new fantasy series The Shannara Chronicles is set in the future but features elves and gnomes and promises plenty of old-fashioned adventure all filmed in the town of Kumeu, in New Zealand’s scenic…
The Shannara Chronicles
“MTV’s new fantasy series “The Shannara Chronicles” is set in the future but features elves and gnomes and promises plenty of old-fashioned adventure,” writes Nick Perry for The Republic. The show is based…
Marton Csokas Enters Into the Badlands
New Zealand-born actor Marton Csokas, 49, told reporters at the recent New York Comic-Con he is happy to star in the martial-arts drama Into the Badlands because it is unlike anything else on American…
Peter Jackson Ad-Libbed Shooting Hobbit
Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson, 54, admits he was “winging it” and “was making it up as I went along” for much of the Hobbit trilogy’s chaotic shoot. Jackson has revealed he began filming the blockbuster…
Zoë Bell on Fighting Her Way Through Hollywood
“To actually do an action film without Zoë Bell is foolhardy,” director Quentin Tarantino says, but according to Denver news site Westword, based on the current slate on the Waiheke Island-born stunt double turned actor’s…
New Zealand’s Post-Hobbit World
Even after the end of Peter Jackson’s ‘Lord of The Rings’ movies, the New Zealand film and TV business is thriving and “turning the land that once served as Middle-Earth into a host of…
Cliff Curtis on Returning to New Zealand to Produce
New Zealand actor Cliff Curtis says that returning to New Zealand to tell local stories keeps him sane. “It sort of grounds me and gives me a sense of purpose,” said Curtis. His next project alongside…
Dean O’Gorman Gets Kirk Douglas’ Seal of Approval
When Aucklander Dean O’Gorman, 38, was cast in the plum role of Kirk Douglas in Trumbo, the new biopic about blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, he decided to ask the legendary actor if he wouldn’t…
Finola Dwyer Tells Her Mother’s Story in Brooklyn
New Zealand-born, London-based producer Finola Dwyer has “impeccable taste,” according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Her latest collaboration with author Nick Hornby is Brooklyn, the film version of Colm Toibin’s 2009 novel. Dwyer has made…
Kitten Rugby World Cup
Kiwi comedy duo Jono and Ben have recreated the highlights of the New Zealand vs. France Rugby World Cup match in a video with a twist – their clip features kittens rather…
Del Toro’s Crimson Peak Inspired by Night in Haunted Kiwi Hotel
Guillermo Del Toro’s newest movie Crimson Peak reportedly is inspired by nights he spent in haunted hotels – one of them a New Zealand hotel, where he stayed while scouting locations for The Hobbit films. When he…
Phil Keoghan’s Road to Adventure
Now in its 27th season, The Amazing Race continues to push people to do extraordinary things at all ends of the earth and New Zealand-born host Phil Keoghan, 48, loves to see people out…
Obviously Deathgasm Is a Family Film
“Making his feature directing debut after several years on the FX teams of such films as The Avengers and The Hobbit, New Zealander Jason Lei Howden delivers a pic that will play very well…
Jane Campion One of Cinema’s Most Powerful Women
“From Golden Age trailblazers to modern-day ass-kickers,” the Telegraph introduces its readers to Hollywood’s 34 “most influential, inventive and important women,” including our very own Jane Campion. A director, writer and producer, Campion is best…
Splatstick Done the Ash Vs. Evil Dead Way
Roger Murray, on the phone to the Los Angeles Times from the Auckland set of Ash vs. Evil Dead, has one simple way to describe his job as the show’s prosthetics designer and props…
Marlon Williams Smoulders in TV Debut
With 24-year-old New Zealand singer Marlon Williams making his Australian television debut – in ABC’s seductive new miniseries, The Beautiful Lie – both his vocal ability and screen charisma should convince viewers of this…
New Zealand is the King of Comedy Horror
Kiwis “certainly seem to have a killer knack for comedy horror – gleefully creating tongue-in-cheek shockers that have the ability to make us both giggle and scream”, writes Mark Butler for WOW. Below…
Meet the New Moana Princess
14-year old Hawaiian Auli’i Cravalho has been selected to voice the lead in Disney’s new princess movie Moana. “From baby time to now, I wanted to be a Disney princess and then I wanted to…
Banshee’ Releases Final Season Trailer
The trailer for the fourth and final season of small-town crime drama Banshee has been released. January 29 has been set as the show’s premiere date. New Zealand actor Antony Starr is starring as Lucas…
‘The Shannara Chronicles’ New Trailer Released
A new trailer for fantasy series The Shannara Chronicles, which will debut on January 5, has been released at New York’s Comic Con. The show has been filmed in New Zealand. The series produced by…
Surprise Ash Vs. Evil Dead Premiere
The audience at the Ash Vs. Evil Dead panel at New York’s Comic Con was surprised with a surprise premiere of the entire first episode, which according to Eric Goldman in an article on…
Joe Naufahu to Star in ‘Game Of Thrones’
Joe Naufahu has been cast to star on the sixth season of HBO’s Game Of Thrones. Details on which character the Kiwi will be playing have not yet been released. “He could be the next…
With a Little Help from Sam Neill’s Friends
Hollywood star Sam Neill may originally hail from Northern Ireland, but he has just confessed to having a little difficulty mastering an Ulster accent for television drama series Peaky Blinders – despite help from…
Jane Campion Casts Gaze over Female-Directed Films
Jane Campion contributes to a Sight & Sound magazine special issue, which aims “to write women back into film history by championing 100 female-directed hidden gems that have been forgotten or unfairly overlooked.” “Just because…
American Cinematheque to Honour Cliff Curtis
New Zealander Cliff Curtis, 47, who portrayed speed chess genius Genesis Potini in The Dark Horse, will be honoured by the American Cinematheque at a ceremony on 11 October at the Aero Theatre in…
After 40 Years Rocky Horror Has Become Mainstream
The Rocky Horror Picture Show, co-written by New Zealand-based Richard O’Brien, has risen “from a shelved failure to a cult hit to a beloved cultural staple is thanks to its dedicated groups of fans,”…
Anna Paquin to Star Alongside Forest Whitaker
Golden Globe and Academy Award winner Anna Paquin has been cast in a new role opposite Forest Whitaker in the epic television miniseries, Roots, which is based on Alex Haley’s 1976 novel as well…
Lucy Lawless on a Quest in Splatterfest
New Zealand native Lucy Lawless didn’t appear in the original Evil Dead movies, but she brings her own cult following to the television revival of that classic horror franchise. Lawless stars as the mysterious and…
Jake Gyllenhaal’s ‘Nail-Biting’ Adventure
“Stuck atop the highest peak in the world, nobody can hear you scream. That’s what makes this white-knuckler, about an ill-fated ascent to Mount Everest, such a harrowing and haunting force of nature”, writes…
Born to Dance at TIFF
“Auckland, New Zealand may seem a world away from the heart of hip-hop culture in the US, but the local dance crews featured in Born to Dance totally own it”, writes Justin Lowe for
Richard Taylor to Help Bring Monkey King to US
Special effects maestro New Zealander Richard Taylor will direct the design of characters in the upcoming American film version of The Monkey King, a Chinese blockbuster. “There has been a rush to bring Western-originated movies to…
Jake Mahaffy’s Rare and Valuable New Film Lauded
Jake Mahaffy’s evocation of a borderline unbearable true-life tragedy, Free In Deed is a bracing, bruising corrective to the “faith-based filmmaking” movement, according to Indiewire. The New Zealand-raised director’s third film, set in and…
NZ Star Wars Geeks Rule the Galaxy for a Day
Walt Disney’s new Star Wars toys have been released in New Zealand – the first place in the universe for the toys to go on sale in “Disney’s Apple-like round-the-globe rollout of new toys”. “It’s…
First Images of Holiday Horror Krampus Released
First images of “Michael Dougherty’s new stab at holiday horror” Krampus have been released. Krampus tells the story of Max, who stops to believe in Santa more and more when his “dysfunctional family gathers for…
Pietra Brettkelly’s Doco Premieres in Venice
Multi-award-winning director and producer Pietra Brettkelly’s documentary A Flickering Truth, filmed in Afghanistan, made its premiere at the 2015 Venice International Film Festival. New Zealand-born Brettkelly’s 2008 film The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins…
On the True Detective Set With DOP Nigel Bluck
Recently rated by Variety magazine as one of 10 cinematographers to watch, New Zealander Nigel Bluck, 43, has been working as director of photography on the second season of popular…
Flight of the Conchords Musical Is Coming
The upcoming Flight of the Conchords movie is shaping up to be a musical like no other, co-creator Jemaine Clement has promised – albeit tentatively. The film is “definitely a couple of years away,…
New Zealand Has Some Filmtastic Backdrops
Many of the grander surroundings in Craig Zobel’s new film Z For Zachariah were filmed in New Zealand. Women’s lifestyle site Bustle takes a look back at other notable films shot throughout the country…
TIFF Exclusive: Bust a Move With This Clip From ‘Born To Dance’
“While Hollywood has got the dance formula down cold, New Zealand actor/filmmaker Tammy Davisis bring(s) his own unique flavor to the genre”, writes Edward Davis for Indiewire. The New Zealand feature film Born To…
5 Reasons You Will Love ‘Fear The Walking Dead’
The Walking Dead spinoff Fear The Walking Dead featuring Kiwi actor Cliff Curtis is “a worthy successor” – “the atypical spinoff that preserves and deepens the tone of its original show”, according to Adweek,…
Rob Hall’s Final Climb Roars to Life in Everest
It’s been almost two decades since the infamous 1996 tragedy on Mount Everest in which New Zealand guide Rob Hall and seven others perished. The world’s highest mountain has seen more destructive seasons –…
