Jane Campion’s “handsome, complex and brilliant” western The Power of the Dog won best picture (drama) and best director at this year’s Golden Globes, along with best supporting actor for “the excellent” Kodi Smit-McPhee,…
New Zealander Temuera Morrison vividly remembers the first time he tried on his Boba Fett suit, David Betancourt writes in a story for The Washington Post. He sat in a meeting room with Star Wars…
Oscar-winning Palmerston North-born production designer Grant Major has transitioned from The Lord of the Rings to the wilds of 1925 Montana for The Power of the Dog, director Jane Campion’s acclaimed western drama that,…
After winning a New Zealand international comedy festival award for stand-up in 2007, at the age of 15, Rose Matafeo has conquered just about everything she has ever attempted, Stuart Heritage writes for The…
When Amazon announced in August 2021 that its billion-dollar Lord of the Rings TV series would shift production to England, fans were stunned. Though J.R.R. Tolkien was British and though the settings are fictional,…
“Fantasy and sci-fi is having a moment,” according to Vogue Australia journalist Charlie Calver. “The wave started with the debut of HBO’s Game of Thrones in 2011, grew and grew as the…
“It has gotten easier over the years to feel comfortable with what work means to the world,” Jordan Kisner writes in a feature published in the New York Times Magazine. “She pulled…
New Zealand’s “trailblazing director” Jane Campion speaks to The Guardian’s Sean O’Hagan about how the #MeToo movement inspired her first feature in more than a decade, “revisionist western”, The Power of the Dog. That it…
Ahead of his epic series Get Back, the New Zealand director Peter Jackson reveals the secrets of 60 hours of intimate, unseen footage of the Fab Four – and why it turns everything we…
Lucy Lawless, who currently stars in the television series My Life Is Murder, which screens in both New Zealand and the US, spoke to Forbes about doing voiceover animation, taking a leap of faith…
Wellington-born actor Thomasin McKenzie, who plays the lead in Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho, is interviewed for The Observer’s regular column, ‘On my radar’, one person’s snapshot of their current cultural life. Acting since…
“When French filmmaker Julia Ducournau took the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year for Titane, her wild explosion of body horror and gender politics, Jane Campion’s status in film history shifted slightly: no longer…
The third feature from New Zealand-based filmmaker Briar March is the “gripping documentary” Mothers of the Revolution, which celebrates the women protesters of Greenham Common. Wendy Ide reviews the film for Screen Daily. “The British…
At the recent International Emmy Awards, held in New York, Christchurch-born director Jessica Hobbs won for best directing of a drama series, for her work on The Crown. Eva Corlett reports on the win…
New Zealand’s Jane Campion has “underlined her status as one of the leading film-makers of her generation, taking home the best director trophy at the Venice Film Festival”, AFP reports. The Power of the Dog,…
The Power of the Dog marks a homecoming for Wellington-born Oscar winner Jane Campion – with a career-first twist, David Canfield reports for Vanity Fair. Campion’s last feature was the 2009 romantic drama Bright Star; she…
While shooting Season 2 of Starstruck, London-based New Zealander Rose Matafeo, 29, spoke to Harper’s Bazaar about its origin story, her dream guests, and how the stereotypes of rom-coms could do with a shake-up. “I…
Oscar-winning writer-director New Zealander Taika Waititi is co-creator of the “unforgettable (and caper-filled)” television series Reservation Dogs, a “portrait of a modern-day Native American community”, Inkoo Kang reports for The Washington Post. “From the pilot…
One of the most shipped couples in TV history, Xena and Gabrielle, are finally getting back together, Dominic Corry writes for Entertainment Weekly. New Zealander Lucy Lawless and American Renee O’Connor, who co-starred on…
“It’s the Beatles as none would ever see or hear them again – their last live performance as a group, 30 January 1969. It’s also the Beatles as none of us, 52 years on,…
New Zealand-born comedian Jemaine Clement breaks down Wellington Paranormal for Vanity Fair and gives the Americans a crash course in New Zealand humo(u)r. The series will also introduce American audiences to the Māori language, Brian Ng…
New Zealand and Australia “have long been in the business of making excellent television that American audiences really would dig,” Alexis Gunderson reports for entertainment news site, Vulture. “Never before have there been so…
New Zealander Kerry Fox, the star of Shallow Grave and Intimacy looks back at her Lower Hutt childhood, driving at 15, her parents disco dancing and an Abba fan club in her shed. “The highlight…
New Zealand-born stuntwoman Vanessa Cater has just finished putting her body on the line in Marvel’s new TV show The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Before that, the action woman has worked in The…
New Zealander Rose Matafeo, 29, is a staple on the UK stand-up circuit; you probably know her face from regular appearances on panel shows, or from her critically-acclaimed comedy special Horndog. But now, she’s…
Marten Rabarts, the globetrotting New Zealand film executive turned festival director reflects on a year spent grounded, watching whales from his home office and the formative influences of Wendy Palmer and Michael Kuhn, Sandy…
New Zealand film director Sir Peter Jackson will receive the Visual Effects Society Lifetime Achievement Award at the 19th annual VES Awards, which will be presented during a virtual ceremony on 6 April. “Sir Peter…
The peculiar brand of awkward, self-deprecating, deadpan humour Jemaine Clement, Bret McKenzie and Taika Waititi developed on stage in the late 1990s – let’s call it the Wellington School of comedy – has now…
None of veteran New Zealand actor Rena Owen’s tough previous roles prepared her for the demands – both physical and emotional – of playing Māori matriarch and political activist Whina Cooper, in the new…
Over the last two decades, Phil Keoghan has mostly led a nomadic life, Praveen Sudevan writes for The Hindu. As the host of The Amazing Race, a reality adventure show with 15 Emmy awards,…
It’s been 20 years since New Zealander Zoë Bell arrived in Los Angeles, where she soon took her stunt double career to another level. The Waiheke Island-native made her name after the iconic stunt collaboration…
“The enormity of nature hits you like a freight train in the early scenes of James Ashcroft’s taut and sinewy first feature, Coming Home in the Dark,” David Rooney writes in a…
With an acclaimed romcom, one-off HBO special and a new sitcom out this year, 2021 is looking good for New Zealand-born rising comic, Rose Matafeo, who is based in the UK. NME’s George Fenwick recently…
With New Zealand-made film Baby Done just released on digital platforms throughout the UK, the BBC’s Emma Jones writes about the film’s star, Rose Matafeo, and how the film explores misgivings about motherhood. Matafeo, 28,…
Emmy-winning production company World of Wonder is bringing RuPaul’s drag queen reality series to New Zealand and Australia, and it will be appropriately titled RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under, Dino-Ray Ramos reports for Deadline. RuPaul…
US-based Charlotte Larsen, 38, is poised to become a household name. The New Zealand native has found success as a producer and actress on popular films like Gloria and Great Expectations. She is currently…
“Even in a year free from Hollywood’s typical machinations – red carpets, fall festivals, movie theatres – stars could still be made seemingly overnight,” Keaton Bell writes for Vogue. “Here’s our rundown of 15…
“In a brilliant move, the Beatles him to work on the 56 hours of…
Auckland-born actor Rachel House, 49, is the voice of Terry, a Great Beyond “soul counter” in Pixar’s latest animated comedy-drama, Soul. House recorded remotely for the film from New Zealand, which also stars Jamie…
Auckland-born actor Martin Henderson, 46, stars in Netflix series, Virgin River as the love interest of Mel Monroe played by Alexandra Breckenridge – “who moves to the tiny titular town in hopes of escaping…
Thanks to its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, New Zealand is enjoying an unprecedented boom in film production, with directors seeking safe conditions, and that most elusive thing this year – a normal life,…
New Zealand-based YouTube comedy trio Viva La Dirt League – which is behind popular video game skit series like Epic NPC Man and Game Logic – has signed with Creative Artists…
A thoroughly absorbing though deeply upsetting drama, County Lines is a remarkable debut feature from New Zealand-born writer-director Henry Blake. Inspired by his own experiences as a youth worker in East London, Blake hopes…
New Zealand-raised Richard O’Brien, the creator of the cult Rocky Horror Picture Show is not going quietly into his 70s. O’Brien, who lives with his third wife, Sabrina, just outside of Katikati, talks with…
“The rebellious nature of the mid-to-late 20th-century teenager sought to expose , deviating from the social norms to embrace the very depths of ‘bad taste’. Simultaneously, whilst yet unknown, New-Zealand…
Directed by Curtis Vowell and produced by Taika Waititi, award-winning comic Rose Matafeo “is wonderful in irresistible film about parenthood”, Guardian Australia critic Luke Buckmaster writes in a review of New Zealand comedy/drama, Baby…
“Imagine how Ripley of Alien would handle a Nightmare at 20,000 Feet-style gremlin attack. Sound wild? Roseanne Liang’s female empowerment thriller delivers on that premise.” Variety’s Peter Debruge reviews the New Zealand director’s film…
Electronic music documentary Underplayed is the feature debut of New Zealand-born director Stacey Lee, who has been shortlisted for the Cannes Young Directors Award. “Filmed through a deeply intersectional feminist lens, Underplayed highlights not…
“A pulse of vulnerability beats at the heart of Sam Kelly’s outwardly imposing but unexpectedly touching debut feature, Savage,” Phil Hoad writes in a review of the film for The Guardian. The film has…
Amazon Prime’s epic adaptation of The Wheel Of Time is based in an alternate world where magic exists, but only certain women are permitted to use it. One of those women, Nynaeve, is played…
Nelson-based adventure racer Nathan Fa’avae, 48, who led the New Zealand team on to win the World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji, is profiled by entertainment news site, Screen Rant. For the World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji…
An Empire reviewer bemoans this month’s “bittersweet” release of New Zealander Niki Caro’s live-action adaptation Mulan through online streamer Disney Plus. “Not only the best live-action Disney adaptation to date, but also a dazzling,…
In a story published by Cambridge University student newspaper, Varsity, Emily Moss argues that we have “nothing to fear” from New Zealander Taika Waititi’s move into the mainstream, “as he seems intent on taking…
Los Angeles-based Phil Keoghan, host of The Amazing Race, has been working on a new competition show for CBS called Tough As Nails featuring essential workers, which finished filming before the coronavirus outbreak and premieres…
“Warming the cockles of audience hearts at last year’s Sydney Film Festival, New Zealander Hamish Bennett’s comedy Bellbird is a defiantly optimistic tribute to the Northland region where the primary school teacher-cum-filmmaker grew up,”…
“Set during the New Zealand gold rush in the 1860s, is a heady concoction of love, murder and revenge. It follows the story of Anna Weatherell (played by…
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