Wednesday 16 May, 2012
Last week the country`s legal eagles partied hard held their annual conference in Queenstown, where Victoria Spackman won the award for Private Sector In-House Lawyer of the Year at the CLANZ Gala Dinner & Awards Ceremony on Friday night.

Wednesday 16 May, 2012
Within a week of the UK`s Leveson enquiry into the phone-hacking scandal declaring Rupert Murdoch “not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company” and the same day former UK boss of News International Rebekah Brooks and six others were charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice, News Corp has taken a 19.9% stake in China`s largest film company, the US-listed Bona Film Group.

Wednesday 16 May, 2012
This week TV3`s Strongman: The Tragedy and one of the few remaining obligations TVNZ has to the country at large have both come under scrutiny. TVNZ doesn`t want to have to do boring election stuff any more; and NZ On Air, yet again, is in the firing line.

Wednesday 16 May, 2012
Park Ki Yong`s post-earthquake documentary Moving has screened in the CinemaScape strand of the Jeonju International Film Festival in Korea. Park shot the documentary while in NZ on a research fellowship at the University of Auckland.

Wednesday 16 May, 2012
The Motion Picture Industry Council of New Zealand (NZMPIC) held its annual convention in Hamilton last week, with distributors giving sneaky peeks to exhibitors and programmers of upcoming fare, and celebrating the achievements of the last 12 months.

Monday 14 May, 2012
The British Council Realise Your Dream competition transports Australian creatives on a reverse journey back to the Old Dart, with $10,000 and appointments to see useful mentors. A decade of industry people have benefited.

News Feature by: Dr Vincent O`Donnell
Monday 14 May, 2012
Yet another regulatory arena pops up to trouble the shiny heads of industry lawyers. This time it is gambling, and those bureacrats really do have experience with crime. Dr O\`Donnell wedges a chair under the door knob and slips a note to us down the interwebs.

Monday 14 May, 2012
The Save TVNZ 7 campaign runs a public meeting tomorrow night in Auckland, next Monday in Wellington and a week later in Christchurch.

Monday 14 May, 2012
FilmRaro adds itself to the list of short film competitions offering prizes, creating a more Island Time alternative to next weekend`s V48 Hours, and giving the eight winning teams a busy week in Rarotonga. Drum Productions has launched Film Raro with much loftier intentions than enticing entries by offering winners a trip to an island paradise.

Friday 11 May, 2012
As the Documentary Edge Festival heads into its closing weekend in Auckland ahead of its Wellington opening next week, the DOC Lab, an incubator for transmedia projects (drama or documentary) has opened its call for applications.

News Feature by: David Tiley
Friday 11 May, 2012
The standard elements of history are a) domesticated experts, b) reconstruction and c) eyewitness accounts, either from interviews or records. What happens when broadcasters use contemporary techniques to re-embrace the idea of a people’s history?

News Feature by: Keith Barclay
Saturday 12 May, 2012
Sydney-based Odin`s Eye Entertainment (OEE) has a significant boost to business having signed an agreement with Warner Bros. Digital Distribution (WBDD) for electronic sell through (EST) and video on demand (VOD) distribution of its films via cable, satellite and broadband platforms in North America.

News Feature by: David Tiley
Friday 11 May, 2012
Public service broadcasters do children`s content - and are trusted to provide it because they are not trying to sell things to kids that parents will have to pay for. Now take all that and put it online - and the international landscape gets very inventive.

News Feature by: David Tiley
Friday 11 May, 2012
Basta means revenge in Flemish. A group of humourists turned journalists decided to make war on grotesque institutions on behalf of the ordinary people. It was a Belgian version of The Chasers... with some intriguing differences.

Friday 11 May, 2012
A private members bill, released today, would ensure the survival of TVNZ7, New Zealand`s only wholly non-commercial television channel which is about to be dumped by the National Government.

Friday 11 May, 2012
Most Fun slips back, Oscar winners continue to do well, and nobody likes Westerns again as Blackthorn takes $32, off 2 screens.

Friday 11 May, 2012
TV3`s The GC premiered last Wednesday night, drawing a respectable number of viewers and has now been blamed for more or less everything wrong with anything, anywhere, anytime.

Wednesday 9 May, 2012
The problem of making a film about a band that is well-known, at least to certain generations of locals, is that people feel they know plenty already. For those who aren`t especially familiar with the band or not especially into their music, Shihad: Beautiful Machine offers considerably more than your traditional music doco.

Monday 7 May, 2012
30 years from the film that made his name, Sam Raimi is remaking The Evil Dead, this time substituting good ole NZ for the cabin in the (Tennessee) woods. A cabins in the woods is not an uncommon film subject, as Joss Whedon would attest. Nor, it would seem, are the evil dead, springing up elsewhere and causing Raimi to sue with one hand and make a movie with the other.

News Feature by: Tony Forster
Monday 7 May, 2012
An ambitious agenda for the final session of the 3-day Forum – especially within a mere 90 minutes – tackled the statement: “There is clearly a gap in documentary funding and development which is affecting the future of documentary production in New Zealand. How can this gap be filled?”

News Feature by: Tony Forster
Monday 7 May, 2012
The second part of the Forum`s Production Wrangling session saw Vincent Burke engage in conversation with David White, producer of Sam Peacocke`s soon-to-be-released doco Shihad: Beautiful Machine.

Monday 7 May, 2012
Canada`s Siobhan O`Flynn singlehandedly took on the Forum`s longest session, a two-hour Transmedia Masterclass, continuing the previous day`s panel discussion on the semantics of the concept, exploring how best to utilise all the new opportunities in the context of the web 2.0 world.

Monday 7 May, 2012
In the current economic climate Australian directors are increasingly becoming ‘guns for hire’ and reality based television series are on the rise ... scenarios not unknown on this side of the ditch. 30-year veteran of the Australian industry Tom Zubrycki talked about the writing, directing and editing that tell a story in his master class presentation.

Monday 7 May, 2012
April`s Magma Short Film Festival announces its winners, with Tammy Davis` Ebony Society taking out the grand prize.

News Feature by: Shirin Brown
Friday 4 May, 2012
Always a popular session for emerging film-makers, the DocPitch session offered up a batch of seven projects aimed at local and international markets.

News Feature by: Tony Forster
Friday 4 May, 2012
Two sessions at the Forum opened, dissected and then cooked the can of worms that is the practical task of making a great idea into great content. The wit and wisdom of Vincent Burke dominated both sessions, one a panel discussion, the other a one-to-one discussion with a young producer.

News Feature by: Tony Forster
Monday 7 May, 2012
The title of this session, Change of Screen as written in the Forum programme, contains a typo, I suspect. Given the subject matter, “Change On Screen” would make a tad more sense; although“Change By Screen” might be an even more accurate title for a session aimed at exploring the nature of social activism and the possibility of achieving social change via the medium of documentary story-telling.

News Feature by: Tony Forster
Friday 4 May, 2012
The delightful thing about this session was the energy and passion of the four participants on the discussion panel. It was almost as if the one essential requirement enabling creation of successful screen content for kids was the ability to access and express one’s own inner child.

Thursday 3 May, 2012
This year`s winner of the outstanding contribution to documentary filmmaking in NZ, presented at the Documentary Edge gala last night, went to one of the longer-standing companies in the field, NHNZ. Founding member, and now EVP Development and Marketing, Neil Harraway caught a flight up to sunny Auckland to escape briefly from Dunedin`s rapidly approaching winter to collect the gong.

Thursday 3 May, 2012
Last night at, appropriately, The Edge, the 2012 edition of the Documentary Edge festival held its awards gala with around 150 industry folk turning up to celebrate the achievers and commiserate with those going home empty-handed.

Friday 4 May, 2012
The Forum programme promised a look at what defines transmedia and a demystification of the various terms bandied about in that space, cross-media, all-media, multi-platform and 360 to name but a few.

Thursday 3 May, 2012
A gaggle of superheroes stomp all over local box office records. Kirstin Marcon`s Most Fun opens against them, taking 10th spot.

Friday 4 May, 2012
The old adage `sex sells` is alive and kicking when it comes to storytelling in the modern age – that was the general consensus of the representatives from across the creative spectrum discussing technology at Wednesday`s `Sexy Tech` forum session.

News Feature by: Shirin Brown
Friday 4 May, 2012
The Forum session Show Me The Money noted that raising funds for projects continues to be a challenge in New Zealand. Lyn Collie, producer of There Once Was An Island, canvassed opinions and solutions.

Friday 4 May, 2012
Oscar-shortlisted filmmakers Tom and Sumner Burstyn have stopped making documentary films in New Zealand because it`s just too damn hard to make a living at it. Sumner Burstyn announced their decision at the Screen Edge Forum`s Show Me The Money session.

Friday 4 May, 2012
Frances Joseph (AUT Co Lab) wrangled the opening day session on projects going beyond traditional screen presentation. Mobile guru Laurent Antonczak (Virtuo), Steve La Hood (Story Inc) and Dr Melissa Laing (St Paul Gallery) shared their experiences on specific projects.

Wednesday 2 May, 2012
The absolute necessity of collaboration to ensure success across all aspects of the documentary making process was heavily emphasised by all of the guest speakers at Wednesday morning`s Creative Collaborations session.

Friday 27 April, 2012
Robert Sarkies (Scarfies, Out of the Blue, Two Little Boys) joined recent first-time feature directors Roseanne Liang (My Wedding and Other Secrets), Kirstin Marcon (The Most Fun You Can Have Dying) for UniShorts opening panel on transitioning from short to long-form filmmaking.

Thursday 26 April, 2012
View from Olympus brings together two men whose job is usually not to be seen and who live their lives, physically and metaphorically, behind the camera. Geoffrey Cawthorn`s portrait of Greek-Kiwi composer John Psathas didn`t quite go according to plan. But, like a well-written tune, it found its rhythm.

Thursday 26 April, 2012
Following last year`s entertaining attempt to hold a festival without screening any films and a conference without any attendees, the Beijing Film Festival and Market (BJIFF) returns with vigour, promising $5 billion worth of deal announcements - just as the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) announces an investigation into Hollywood studios paying bribes to facilitate deals in China.

Wednesday 25 April, 2012
The second of two Uni Shorts panel sessions shared the wit and wisdom of longtime producers Steven O`Meagher (Out of the Blue, This is Not My Life), Rachel Gardner (Apron Strings, The Lion Man, The Cult) and the emerging experience of Angela Hicks in the Producers Survival Guide.

Wednesday 25 April, 2012
Director Leanne Pooley gave David Coulson (Whale Rider, North Country) and Cushla Dillon (Beautiful Machine, This Way of Life) the chance to be nice to writers in front of a strong turnout at Script to Screen`s Writers Room in Auckland. With honesty and good humour, they instead stuck the knife in.

Tuesday 24 April, 2012
The 55th New York Festivals International Television & Film Awards announced this year’s winning entries at the 2012 awards ceremony NAB last week. SPP`s My Wedding and Other Secrets and Wild Coasts both picked up awards, with The Almighty Johnsons and Nothing Trivial also selected as finalists.

Monday 23 April, 2012
The inaugural Uni Shorts offered two sessions with producers, plus roundtable discussions for those wanting snag some more indepth information, on the common theme of financing and the pros and cons of receiving big, fat juicy cheques.

Monday 23 April, 2012
Kirstin Marcon`s The Most Fun You Can Have Dying opens on Thursday, after enduring an adventurous journey itself. Happily, that journey concludes with an opening and not a premature demise.

Monday 23 April, 2012
The awards ceremony for this inaugural festival was deliberately informal and, as is the trend these days, brief. The prizegiving was bookended by short comedy routines from Unitec graduates Eli Matthewson and James Roque, soon to be seen in the Comedy Festival.

Monday 23 April, 2012
Animation research`s Ian Taylor is minted a world class New Zealander in the ninth edition of the NZTE-supported awards.

Friday 20 April, 2012
Rachael Wilson`s first feature length documentary, and the first 3D outing from NZ, gets its local premiere in this year`s Doc Edge festival five years after shooting commenced in Vanuatu.

Friday 20 April, 2012
Kiwi-born and Aussie-raised Andrew Dominik sees his second feature starring Brad Pitt, Killing Them Softly (aka Cogan`s Trade) selected in competition for the Palme d`Or.

Wednesday 18 April, 2012
Maori Television organised the inaugural World Indigenous TV Broadcasters Conference back in 2008. Recently returned from the 3rd biennial event – this time held in Norway – CEO Jim Mather shared some of the developments at the conference and accompanying network organisation.

Wednesday 18 April, 2012
Cannes` has selected Zia Mandivwalla`s Night Shift in the Court Metrages competition, one of ten shorts chosen from 4,500 submissions. Night Shift competes for the Short Film Palme d`Or.

Wednesday 18 April, 2012
One of two NZ films at this year`s Doc Edge festival focused on the creative process, Leonie Reynold`s first feature length documentary takes a soup-to-nuts observational approach to the mounting of a 2009 theatre production by Wellington playwright and performer Jo Randerson, Good Night – The End.

Wednesday 18 April, 2012
Lawyer Miriam Dean has been appointed as the new Chair of New Zealand on Air, replacing the retiring Neil Walter. Ms Dean is also holds various directorships on the boards of the New Zealand Bar Association, Auckland Council Investments, Crown Fibre Holdings and the Royal New Zealand Ballet.