Thursday 5 December, 2013
Despite its indie credentials, Sundance is not immune to the passing of time. Organisers this year noted an increase in “indie” films led by established acting talent. With the more or less concurrent Slamdance festival drawing the younger crowd, Sundance – now in its 30th year – is showing its age with more mature stories and themes stiffening the backbone of many of its selections.

Thursday 5 December, 2013
The winner of the inaugural Show Me Shorts People`s Choice Award has been announced, woth the honour going to Ben Woollen`s Serve and Protect.

Wednesday 4 December, 2013
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced 15 films still being considered for Oscar love. The list represents an almost 90% cull of the 147 titles qualified for consideration in the feature doco category.

Tuesday 3 December, 2013
The 6th edition of the awards will honour Dana Rotberg and Antonia Prebble for their work on White Lies.

Wednesday 4 December, 2013
One of the better-kept industry secrets is now out in the open with the announcement this morning (Tuesday) of Gibson Group founder Dave Gibson as the NZFC Chief Executive for the next five years.

Tuesday 3 December, 2013
NZ`s highest earning local title this year, Tearepa Kahi`s Mt Zion, is one of 25 titles nominated for awards at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival`s (APFF) 56th edition, to be held in Macao next week.

Monday 2 December, 2013
Ahead of SPADA`s AGM and annual awards, outgoing SPADA President Matt Emery presented to an audience predominantly made up of producers on the state of play for the replacement to the Pink Book.

Monday 2 December, 2013
The New Zealand Writers Guild has opened applications for the first round of its NZFC-supported Seed Grants initiative.

Monday 2 December, 2013
Former SPADA President Richard Fletcher returns to the top post, this time sharing the Presidential responsibilities jointly with SPP`s Chief Executive Kelly Martin.

Monday 2 December, 2013
The twice-delayed “final five” announcement for Make My Horror Movie reveals six titles are still in the running for the Make My Horror Movie crown.

Friday 29 November, 2013
For those contemplating a trip to Brisbane for next month`s Asia Pacific Screen Awards, organisers have announced a six-strong panel including two Kiwis ahead of the Awards bash.

Friday 29 November, 2013
Despite the absence of a conference this year, SPADA held its annual awards in Auckland last night following its briefing on the Performers Agreement with Equity and the organisation`s AGM. At an informal event, Tammy `Munter` Davis did the MC-ing honours, which saw filmmaker Jackie van Beek, producer Matthew Metcalfe and the late Anna Cahill celebrated.

Friday 29 November, 2013
Entirely predictably, the latest instalment of The Hunger Games takes the top spot in its opening week. Less predictably, Doctor Who`s 50th anniversary bash takes third. What do we want? Time travel! When do we want it? It doesn`t matter.

Wednesday 27 November, 2013
Desert Road`s doco The Golden Hour, directed by Justin Pemberton, missed out to France Televisions` 5 Broken Cameras in the Documentary category at the New York ceremony.

Wednesday 27 November, 2013
Having been split from TVNZ twenty-something years ago, NHNZ will next year launch its own international children`s television channel, although not immediately in NZ.

Wednesday 27 November, 2013
Film Independent has announced the nominations for the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards. Leading the pack were Steve McQueen`s 12 Years a Slave and Alexander Payne`s Nebraska with seven and six nods respectively.

Wednesday 27 November, 2013
The Captioning Working Group will present awards for the second year at an awards ceremony in Auckland on Friday.

Monday 25 November, 2013
Indian minister for Information & Broadcasting, Manish Tewari, has announced at the country`s Film Bazaar a welcome change to the country`s permitting processes, effective from I January.

Monday 25 November, 2013
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the 10 titles, selected from 120 qualified live action short films, which will be considered for Oscar nomination. Among the 110 casualties to date are two NZ titles.

Monday 25 November, 2013
Singapore`s Ilo Ilo was the surprise winner of the Best Film gong at the weekend`s Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan. Ilo Ilo, seen here in this year`s NZIFF, won Cannes` Camera d’Or earlier this year and is selected Singapore’s submission for the Foreign Language Oscar.

Friday 22 November, 2013
Shona Grundy`s Auckland-based Trigger Happy has this week updated its animation app, Toon Hero, adding the ability to share animations to social media sites including YouTube, Tumblr and Facebook.

Friday 22 November, 2013
TV viewing numbers are substantially down in the second half of the year, returning close to 2008 levels.

Friday 22 November, 2013
Following last week`s meeting in Auckland of the nascent screen industry forum, organisers are pulling together a more wieldy group to advance their activities in support of the industry.

Friday 22 November, 2013
At a Vodafone NZ Music Awards ceremony dominated, entirely predictably, by Lorde, Special Problems` Joel Kefali picked up his third consecutive Best Video Award for the teen`s Royals.

Friday 22 November, 2013
MPs from across the House of Representatives have demonstrated their support for Maori Television by passing the Maori Television Service Amendment Bill into law tonight.

Friday 22 November, 2013
This year`s rather less unofficial NZ Film Awards has announced its nominations list, with Mark Albiston & Louis Sutherland`s Shopping and Andrew Adamson`s Mr Pip leading the pack with 13 nods apiece.

Friday 22 November, 2013
Thor continues to hammer the opposition, while jackasses, a butler, a would-be opera singer and a bloody remake round out the top five. Beyond the Edge, Mr Pip and Gardening With Soul make slow and graceful descents.

Friday 15 November, 2013
Auckland-based producer Philippa Campbell (Top of the Lake, Black Sheep, No. 2) returns to India shortly as a mentor for the Work-In-Progress Lab at National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) Film Bazaar in Goa. The event runs alongside the International Film Festival of India (IFFI).

Friday 15 November, 2013
Yesterday`s Screen Industry Forum passed three resolutions designed to establish a pan-industry body and call on government to consult, then respond quickly to the issues facing the industry. The meeting was attended by over 400 people, according to organisers.

Friday 15 November, 2013
John Harris has sold his 19 year-old Greenstone TV to Australian production company Cordell Jigsaw Zapruder.

Thursday 14 November, 2013
238 entries from 12 countries are named finalists for this year`s Asia TV Awards (ATA) bash next month. For the first time in a while, no NZ programmes or companies get a nod, although an NHNZ stable-mate has several opportunities to pick up gongs.

Wednesday 13 November, 2013
So went the much-repeated slogan for the 2014 season launch, held in Auckland on Wednesday evening. And, if seeing it was believing, hearing it was almost deafening.

News Feature by: John Barnett
Wednesday 13 November, 2013
In a piece also published by the NZ Herald, John Barnett takes a look at the problems currently facing the domestic screen industry and proposes some solutions.

Tuesday 12 November, 2013
The nominations for this year`s Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) were announced yesterday, with two NZ films among the 39 put forward.

Tuesday 12 November, 2013
Peter Jackson, Joe Letteri and Weta Digital will receive the Producers Guild of America’s 2014 Vanguard Award. The award is for “achievements in new media and technology”, previously presented to James Cameron, Stan Lee, George Lucas, John Lasseter among others.

Tuesday 12 November, 2013
The NZ leg of the world’s largest short film festival, Tropfest, returns to New Plymouth in February. Sixteen New Zealand finalists will have their films screened in front of an industry jury and public audience with some great prizes on offer.

Monday 11 November, 2013
Hoyts NZ (trading as HCH Bidco NZ) made a profit of $10.1 million in the year to 30 June.

Monday 11 November, 2013
SPP`s Shortland Street is changing up its audio mix to 5.1 ahead of the final 2013 episode, which goes to air the week beginning 9 December.

Friday 8 November, 2013
Peter Simpson and Luke Wheeler`s High School is the first of The Story docos commissioned to air. It has been long-coming, but that`s in line with the original RFP which envisaged projects taking up to two years to complete “so an in-depth story can evolve”.

Thursday 7 November, 2013
Robyn Scott-Vincent`s Attitude Pictures has picked up the Special Jury Prize at the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) 2013 Awards, held last week in Vietnam.

Thursday 7 November, 2013
MediaWorks is set to rise from the ashes tomorrow (Friday) as a less debt-ridden company, but has to cease showing Fox programming as part of its reinvention. The output deal lapses once the company emerges from bankruptcy under its new moniker MediaWorks Holdings Ltd.

Thursday 7 November, 2013
Honk If You`re Horny drove away with the Best Film gong, almost a year after doing the same at the inaugural MOAs. At Show Me Shorts the win came with Oscar qualification.

Wednesday 6 November, 2013
Up to 19 animated features will be considered for the gong at next year`s Academy Awards.