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The Aramoana tragedy is one of the more significant events in New Zealand's recent history. Says director Rob Sarkies, "These events highlight the positive side of the kiwi spirit as much as darkness of the actions of one man. The people of...

New Zealand, 1963. A year after the passing of her mother, eight year old Hine and her father Whai, still grieve. One Sunday morning the water stops flowing into the house so while her father fixes it, Hine does the washing at the river. While there she...

Steven, a closeted Chinese international student, is preparing to lose his virginity to a stranger he met online. With video calls from his emphatic mother half a world away about his fabricated girlfriend and the looming presence of his deceased father...

George the dog and his human August are the only two souls aboard a gigantic, dilapidated space station. They’re charged with keeping it running, but are overwhelmed by the scope of the task. They spend their days cleaning vents and throwing a well...

Seven year old Sarah idolises her Dad. Watching his indoor cricket game is one of her favourite pastimes. She wants to be just like him.  One afternoon, at what seems to be a routine game, Sarah is cheering Dad on from the sidelines when Dad...

May 2023 Board Meeting

Fiona Clark discovered the power of her art by taking portraits of her friends who happened to be drag queens in mid 1970s New Zealand. Giving visibility to the socially marginalised, dismantling prejudice and fighting for equality through the lens of...

Decision: He Pounamu Te Reo Māori Feature Film Initiative decision – 2 March 2023

The deadline for He Pounamu Te Reo Māori Feature Film Intitiative is 1pm.

Over breakfast one morning, Len’s family votes him out. With nowhere else to go, he packs his bags and heads to the office. And as it turns out, he’s not the only one sleeping over. When Len finds out his colleague Mary has also been exiled...

It is the year 2291e. The great warlord’s army are about to attack. Nothing will stand in his way if the Rebels cannot defeat them. Any man, woman or boglinoid willing to risk their life to stand against such tyranny is valued. Is this why...

The marriage of Laura and Bruno is on the rocks. They bicker constantly, their stress levels are sky high, and Laura’s gritted teeth determination to deliver the perfect client pitch leads to an arm laceration and immediate dismissal. At their...

During a rushed lesson from their father on butchering a stolen sheep, 15-year-old Hoss and his 11-year-old brother Blue notice that their act has orphaned a baby lamb. When Blue refuses to eat the resulting meal, his father’s temper ignites. Later...

The closing date for this fund is 16 January 2023 at 1pm.

He Ara Development Fund decisions will be made by Mon 12 Dec 2022 – 5pm

October 2023 Board Meeting

June 2023 Board Meeting

Early Development/Documentary Development/Hāpaitia Te Kaupapa Kiriata: Māori Feature Film Support and Tuhinga Reo Māori: Te Reo Māori Development Fund (March round) decisions will be made by 5pm.

Applications to the Board for production financing are due at 1pm.

Sista is a coming of age story about Tiana (13) and Isabelle (11), two New Zealand/ Samoan sisters on the cusp of adolescence. As Tiana is drawn into the world of teenagerhood and seduced by the pressures it forces upon her, Isabelle feels left behind....

Thick, deadly smog blankets the globe, reducing visibility to less than a few metres. Living in a secluded farmhouse, a woman and her abusive husband attempt to survive by crafting trails with rope and stakes to guide them through the unseeable world....

December 2022 Board Meeting

Applications to the Board for production financing are due at 1pm.

A gothic horror film directed by Garth Maxwell.

Atawhai is a boy on the verge of manhood. He is a favorite of his Aunties, and he in turn adores them. But the Aunties have grown old and he fears they may lose their ability to keep the Marae, the communal gathering place of the tribe, alive. Atawhai...

It's a funny film. The setting is the fictitious New Zealand small town of Klynham in the early 1950s, where each day's trivial events and each character in the motley population serve to divert Ned and Prudence from the truth of what is going on...

An aged woman lives with her fully grown and wholly dependant son. This Vincent Ward film is a rare view of an enclosed world where an 82-year-old woman, alone, is 'The Burdened One'. Filmed over a period of one and a half years, this emerges as...

The conspiracy plot is mostly an excuse for chases, capers and crashes galore, all imbued with plenty of pell-mell shenanigans (this time heading north in a red Falcon) by Goodbye Pork Pie director Geoff Murphy. The movie marked Temuera...

White Lies is a story about the nature of identity:  those who deny it and those who strive to protect it. Paraiti (Whirimako Black) is a medicine woman.  She is the healer and midwife of her rural, tribal people – she believes in life....

Riven is the dark fantasy tale of a warrior's struggle to accept loss. Anguished by the death of his wife, he journeys into the darkness of the forest to seek redemption in bringing her back from the dead. Lost in the mist of his grief, he must face...

Fiji: In a modest dwelling in Fiji a 7 year-old girl with boundless energy tries to understand why she has to say goodbye to her home country and extended family as her mother prepares her to leave Fiji. Tonga: Vai, now 13, dreams of going to NZ to sing...

A family’s idyllic outing descends into terror when high school teacher Alan ‘Hoaggie’ Hoaganraad, his wife Jill and stepsons Maika and Jordon go exploring an isolated coastline. But an unexpected meeting with a pair of murderous...

New Zealand, South Island, 1861. Bridget O’Casey, a hardened 35-year old grog seller, has just fought for her life. Injured and alone, Bridget takes a life-changing gold nugget, steals a horse and runs. Not far behind her, a pack of men with dogs...

Blake travels from the city to rural New Zealand to check on her father after a health scare. They haven’t spoken in some time and Blake is battling a serious diagnosis of her own. With the pleasantries over and health talk...

Separation City is a comedy-drama about the complications that ensue as two marriages collapse. Men's groups and midlife crises in contemporary Wellington make up the world in which the multi-national cast explores, in screenwriter Tom Scott's...