Tag Archives: Film

Annie NZ Auditions – The Search for Annie & the Orphans

Annie NZ Auditions – The Search for Annie & the Orphans

From its Broadway beginnings to the classic film musical, this heart-warming rags-to-riches story of Annie’s journey from the hard-knock New York orphanage to the luxurious home of Oliver Warbucks,…

1939 Film: New Zealand Shortwave Communications – Morse code

1939 Film: New Zealand Shortwave Communications – Morse code

New Zealand Post and the Telegraph Department presents: From Black-Blocks to High Seas, A Romance of the Radio Telegraph Service. This is a 1939 Government film about communication to…

Zoe Bell Recognised for Changing Places in Film

Zoe Bell Recognised for Changing Places in Film

Waiheke born Zoe Bell is being recognised for her crossover into the mainstream acting industry, in two recent articles on rogerebert.com and the Wall Street Journal. In the articles Bell talks about…

Snow on Cuba Mall, Wellington

Snow on Cuba Mall, Wellington

This beautifully made video, captures Wellingtonian’s reactions to the once in a lifetime experience of snow falling on Wellington’s famous Cuba Mall. Filmed and edited by Ro Tierney and…

NZ Does Do-Good Ads Better than Anyone

NZ Does Do-Good Ads Better than Anyone

Public service announcements, or PSAs, are a tough nut for the advertising world to crack, particularly when tackling drink-driving or the dangers of drugs. Too often a worthy cause is “laughably ineffective preachy”…

Peter Jackson a ‘Game Changer’ who ‘transformed’ Filmmaking

Peter Jackson a ‘Game Changer’ who ‘transformed’ Filmmaking

Kiwi director, Peter Jackson is a “game changer who transformed the practice of filmmaking”, according to contributors to the Harvard Business Review’s popular blog. Authors Vijay Govindarajan and Srikanth Srinivas say that Jackson and…

Mr Pip the Film to Screen First in New Zealand

Mr Pip the Film to Screen First in New Zealand

Paramount Pictures has confirmed that New Zealand will be the first nation to see Mr Pip, the film, on general release. Mr Pip is set on the island of Bougainville during the vicious civil…

New Zealand Moviegoer Strikes a Blow for Film Fans Everywhere

New Zealand Moviegoer Strikes a Blow for Film Fans Everywhere

Ever seen a movie trailer, then gone to the film and noticed something major was missing? Well, J Congdon, eagle eyed New Zealand film-goer, certainly did. But, unlike most, he did something about his…

Banking on Dancing Colours

Banking on Dancing Colours

Christchurch-born Len Lye’s “deliriously jazzy 1930s animation for the Post Office Savings Bank shows public information films needn’t be dull,” Judith Mackrell writes for the Guardian. “The colours might look late-60s-psychedelic; some of the…

Big Screen, Big Bucks

Big Screen, Big Bucks

The local screen industry contributed $3 billion in gross revenues to the New Zealand economy in 2011, an increase of 4 per cent over 2010, fueled by a boost in feature film production, according…

Benefits Of Filming On The Cheap

Benefits Of Filming On The Cheap

Director of Western Good for Nothing, New Zealander Mike Wallis, discusses the benefits of making a film with little money in The Huffington Post’s column ‘The Blog’. “With a limited amount of funds to…

Shooting Vampires In NZ

Shooting Vampires In NZ

New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi — whose 2010 film Boy was recently released in the United States — talks to Rotten Tomatoes about his five favourite films and his upcoming vampire movie plans with Flight of…

NZ Film for Manila Filmgoers

NZ Film for Manila Filmgoers

“While New Zealand may primarily be known as the setting of the Lord of the Rings franchise and having tons of sheep, one look at the lineup of the first-ever New Zealand Film Festival is enough…

Unfinished Business

Unfinished Business

Ahead of the “highly anticipated” sequel to Sione’s Wedding, actor Robbie Magasiva, 40, is in Sydney for a Q & A at the Liverpool Event Cinemas to promote Sione’s 2: Unfinished Business. The latest instalment is…

More Tintin Adventures

More Tintin Adventures

Peter Jackson will direct the second film in the planned Tintin trilogy, following the success of the first film in the series, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. Director Steven Spielberg said…

Miramar’s Awakening

Miramar’s Awakening

“Until Sir Peter Jackson and his producer Jamie Selkirk made films in Miramar in the 1990s, the Wellington suburb was sleepy,” David Burton writes for Monocle. “‘There was tumbleweed, rolling down the street,’ jokes…

Good For American Cinemas

Good For American Cinemas

Dunedin director Mike Wallis’ budget western Good for Nothing will become the first self-funded New Zealand film to be released in United States cinemas from next month. Wallis used the landscapes of Central Otago…

Lads On Film Make Festival

Lads On Film Make Festival

Duncan Sarkies’ film Two Little Boys, featuring Bret McKenzie and Australian actor Hamish Blake, will premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, screening in the Generation section, in February. The film is described as an irreverent…

Auckland’s Movie Coup

Auckland’s Movie Coup

Filming begins in Auckland on Hollywood blockbuster, WWII political-thriller Emperor this month at Henderson’s Auckland Film Studios. Lost heartthrob Matthew Fox, 45, stars. Inspired by true events, Emperor is an epic story of love and understanding set amidst the uncertainties…

Memorable In Margaret

Memorable In Margaret

New Zealand-raised True Blood star Anna Paquin, 29, graced the cover of LA Weekly’s Winter Film Issue, which named Margaret — Paquin plays the lead as teenager Lisa — as the best film of the year. The film was shot…

Oddball Wins Over Director

Oddball Wins Over Director

The Peter Jackson-produced and Steven Spielberg-directed 3-D performance-capture film The Adventures of Tintin opens in the United States this week just ahead of the film’s New Zealand release. The Adventures of Tintin arrives in the US as…

Tolkien Tourism In Matamata

Tolkien Tourism In Matamata

The Lord of the Rings franchise is partially responsible for a tourism windfall in New Zealand with global visitor numbers up 40 per cent since 2000. At least five official LOTR-themed tour companies are in operation….

Muppets Made Malevolent

Muppets Made Malevolent

Peter Jackson’s Meet the Feebles is “a hilariously offensive film,” the Muppet’s exact reverse,” writes New York Times’ blogger Lia Miller. “As I began researching this article,” Miller writes, “I was reminded of the most fantastically warped Muppet-style…

Cranking Out A Conchords Film

Cranking Out A Conchords Film

Bret McKenzie has said he has hopes for a film version of his and Jemaine Clement’s hit television show Flight of the Conchords. “We’re going to try and do a movie,” McKenzie said at The Muppets premiere…

Jackson’s Effect

Jackson’s Effect

New Zealand filmmaking is at an all-time high thanks to Lord of the Rings’ director Peter Jackson who, 12 years ago, boosted the country’s Hollywood stock The Hollywood Reporter’s Pip Bulbeck writes. Jackson — who also appeared on…

Expert Slams Shakespeare Film

Expert Slams Shakespeare Film

Otago University expert on the works of English playwright William Shakespeare Professor Evelyn Tribble has criticised the film Anonymous — which questions the bard’s authorship of his attributed plays — calling it Hollywood “libel.” Tribble said…

TEDx Doha: Taika Waititi

TEDx Doha: Taika Waititi

Taika Waititi talks about how creativity has helped him to express his ideas and led him to where he is today at TEDx Doha.

Developing film ties

Developing film ties

New Zealand and China have further strengthened their relations with a film agreement to host more Chinese-produced films in New Zealand. The agreement, made between the two nations in Shanghai and led by a…

Top of the box office

Top of the box office

Director Taika Waititi’s second feature Boy has become the top grossing local film ever at the New Zealand box office, passing the $7.5 million-mark and overtaking 25’s The World’s Fastest Indian, according to distributors…

Role-model Winslet

Role-model Winslet

As well as being every New Zealand director’s actress of choice, Kate Winslet can handle a baby.