Monday 20 May, 2013
The successful New Zealand Make My Movie initiative has returned, and reconfigured itself as Make My Horror Movie. It is almost as if the idea itself is sentient, pulling a film community towards the dark side. And the possibility of international sales.

Friday 17 May, 2013
Wairoa Maori Film Festival has released its programme, mixing Maori films with titles from indigenous filmmakers around the world.

Friday 17 May, 2013
For those who like their entertainment to hit the heights, Wanaka`s Mountain Film Festival has whittled down its 143 entries to 58 in-competition finalists, with the full programme due at the beginning of June.

Friday 17 May, 2013
In Rochester, Kodak has appointed Christian Richter to the new role of film lab and studio relationship manager. The big black K is not giving up on sprocket holes. Can justice be done in the dusty streets of the new frontier?

Friday 17 May, 2013
The world`s largest festival-cum-market event = a very large media presence. Clearly the place to get plenty of coverage for your latest press release. We oblige … selectively.

Friday 17 May, 2013
Search the NZFC site for `deadly ponies`, which this writer did while looking for background on the NZIFF`s recently-announced Zoe McIntosh feature, and the return asks: Did you mean “deals cronies”? Not really, but the response feels apt in a week that sees two of the larger deal and crony fests, Cannes and the LA Screenings, under way.

Friday 17 May, 2013
The latest in a long line of Star Trek titles takes over from Iron Man 3 at the top, while titles offering more local interest come towards the end of their runs or, in the case of a couple, are unreported.

Thursday 16 May, 2013
The NZIFF has announced Alison Maclean as selector for this year`s New Zealand’s Best Shorts and the first six features to play in the festival. Four of the features are local, three of them documentaries.

Wednesday 15 May, 2013
Pietra Brettkelly is travelling the road of self-distribution with Maori Boy Genius , and hitting the road in support of screenings.

Wednesday 15 May, 2013
Script to Screen is excited to announce the eight filmmakers who have won a place in the inaugural FilmUp Mentorship Programme.

Friday 10 May, 2013
Dates are set for the 2013 NZ Game Developers Conference, PikPok`s Into the Dead achieves world domination, Ninja Kiwi grows its relationships in Scotland and a NZOA-funded game hits the beats.

Friday 10 May, 2013
Melanie Bridge will direct the first feature to be produced under a partnership arrangement between the commercial specialists The Sweet Shop and Andrew Adamson`s production company Strange Weather Films.

Friday 10 May, 2013
Just shy of two months after its launch, the Arts Foundation`s crowdfunding site Boosted has announced it`s raked in over $50,000 for projects.

Friday 10 May, 2013
The first reviews of Desert Road`s crime drama Harry are in, and are universally positive.

Friday 10 May, 2013
Aus/NZ exhibitor Hoyts looks to raise US$450 million to refinance, while Reading plans to add a supermarket to its central Wellington site.

Friday 10 May, 2013
Google`s YouTube is launching pay channels in partnership with producers and distributors.

Friday 10 May, 2013
For the second year in a row, NHNZ has gained the top award for Best Television Program Under $250,000 at the International Wildlife Film Festival in the US.

Friday 10 May, 2013
Iron Man 3 drops over 50% in its second week, but still takes over 50% of the country`s box office take.

Wednesday 8 May, 2013
VFX and animation legend Ray Harryhausen died 7 May in London, aged 92. Born in 1920 in the US, Harryhausen was intrigued by stop-frame animation from an early age after seeing the 1933 King Kong, and went on to create some of the most memorable screen sequences using the technique.

Wednesday 8 May, 2013
Desert Road`s Harry begins its run tonight on TV3 at 9.30. Creator Steven O`Meagher talks casting and trying to create not your average cop show.

Monday 6 May, 2013
Sumner and Tom Burstyn (The Way of Life) took away Hot Docs Pitch Forum`s CA$10,000 prize and were also runners up for the Pitch Forum`s audience award (aka the Mexican Hat prize).

Friday 3 May, 2013
NZOA has released the responses to its call for submissions on its discussion paper about online rights for funded TV programmes, along with its own commentary and information on the next steps.

Wednesday 1 May, 2013
Sally Tran has been awarded the 2013 Script to Screen Killer Films Internship Scholarship, pipping fellow finalists Zoe McIntosh and Yamin Tun.

Wednesday 1 May, 2013
Pietra Brettkelly`s feature doco Maori Boy Genius continues the developing trend of local documentaries going for wider releases, following festival appearances in the NZIFF, Berlin, Sydney and New York last year.

News Feature by: Tony Forster
Monday 29 April, 2013
Screen Edge offered a session on crowd-finding and -sourcing, with Anna Guenther, the “brain & inspiration behind PledgeMe” and filmmaker Karl Sheridan.

News Feature by: Emmanuel Samoglou
Monday 29 April, 2013
The world of transmedia, an exciting and increasingly viable creative outlet for filmmakers, was explored in a lively future-forward session at the Screen Edge Forum.

Monday 29 April, 2013
Beneath the headline numbers of a largely static year for local programming in 2012, the death by a thousand cuts from the sinking lid of capped support for NZOA by government continues.

Friday 26 April, 2013
South Pacific Pictures’ The Blue Rose is NZ`s only nomination for June`s Festival de Television de Monte-Carlo, given the nod in the Drama Series category.

News Feature by: Tony Forster
Wednesday 24 April, 2013
Last year, the Screen Edge Forum closed with a panel discussion titled Mind the Gap, about the dearth of funding opportunities for doco filmmakers in NZ. This year`s Closing the gap featured a much smaller panel, reps from the NZFC and NZ On Air, whose recent announcements of targeted doco funds will – hopefully – close that gap.