SPADA Screen Industry Award 2018 Recipients Announced

THURSDAY, 15 NOVEMBER

The winners of three prestigious annual SPADA (Screen Production and Development Association) Screen Industry Awards for 2018 were announced at the 26th Annual SPADA Conference in Wellington on Thursday 15 November.

SPADA New Filmmaker of the Year was awarded to Kyan Krumdieck, of Divisionary Films. The New Filmmaker of the Year Award is given in recognition of emerging talent and innovation in filmmaking. As Principal Sponsor’s of the Award, Park Road Post Production provides the recipient with post-production services worth $20,000. This year, Kyan made his first funded film Repugnant through the Someday Stories initiative. The film stars Donogh Rees as a woman attempting to "cure" a pug of his homosexuality. The film also features Hamish Parkinson and Simon Prast.

Kyan is a Denver born, Christchurch-raised Queer filmmaker. He has written and directed over a dozen films, which are a blend of character comedy and drama that often tackle some aspect of sexuality.

His short The Grind, about Christchurch gay men’s experiences on Grindr, won Best Student Film at Show Me Shorts 2015. For his NZBS thesis he wrote and directed Calling Crypto a spec half hour TV pilot about a depression hotline for the Monster community. Last year his TVNZ New Blood pilot The Sisterhood starred Amanda Billing and centred on a secret society of women who can time travel when they have sex. The episode won Best Pilot at the New Zealand Web Fest. This year he won Best Script for La Coquille at the 48 Hours Auckland Finals, where the film also won Best Auckland Film.

Kyan has also worked on 7 Days, edited for animation at Toybox and written for Shortland Street.

SPADA INDEPENDENT PRODUCER OF THE YEAR AWARD Producer Desray Armstrong, Sandy Lane Productions, took out this year’s SPADA Independent Producer of the Year Award sponsored by Crombie Lockwood. This Award recognises outstanding contribution towards the growth and development of the NZ independent screen industry in 2018.NZ INDEPENDENT SCREEN

As well as producing Mike Minogue’s comedy web series The Watercooler (released on NZME’s platform Watch Me) and Michelle Saville’s short film BATS, Desray has also produced her debut feature film STRAY.

Desray’s commitment to STRAY and her tireless determination as an independent producer, resulted in this producer securing the bulk of the feature film's budget through private investment from arts patrons as well as in-kind sponsorship on technical equipment, post-production services… and from corporate sponsors and she ran a record-breaking Boosted campaign that raised over $125,000 for the film.

STRAY had its World Premiere in Main Competition at the Moscow International Film Festival: making it the first New Zealand film to be selected for this Festival – the second oldest in the world. STRAY’s actor Kieran Charnock took away Best Actor for his performance. STRAY was also selected for the 2018 New Zealand International Film Festival.

2018 SPADA/DATA BOOK INDUSTRY CHAMPION The 2018 SPADA/Data Book Industry Champion Award recipient was Jennifer Ward-Lealand. The Award recognises Jennifer’s tireless dedication to the stage and screen, in a career that spans more than 40 years. She has worked as an actor, director, teacher, presenter, host, narrator and mentoring in major productions across most genres and in both English and te reo Maori.

Multi-talented, Jennifer has performed in numerous award-winning comedic and dramatic roles for theatre, film and television. As an accomplished singer her portrayal of Marlene Dietrich in cabaret “Falling In Love Again” received critical acclaim.

Throughout this time she has served on several theatre boards and, since 2007, has been President of Actors Equity. That year she was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to theatre and the community.

Jennifer’s film and television work includes The Footstep Man, Desperate Remedies, The Ugly, FRACTURE and Linda’sBody. Television includes Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Shortland Street, Duggan, Auckland Daze, The Almighty Johnsons; and she currently leads an ensemble cast in Dorthe Scheffmann’s feature film debut VERMILION.

For more information on the 26th Annual SPADA Conference visit www.spada.co.nz.

King (2002), Tom Reilly (2003), Florian Habicht (2004), Roseanne Liang (2005), The Simmonds Brothers (2006), Summer Agnew (2007), Sam Kelly (2008), Zia Mandviwalla (2009), Briar March (2010), Zoe McIntosh (2011), Mike Wallis (2012), Jackie van Beek (2013), James Napier Robertson (2014), Alyx Duncan (2015), Yamin Tun (2016), The Candle Wasters (2017).

Independent Producer of the Year

2004 Trevor Haysom

2005 Elizabeth Mitchell

2006 Julie Christie

2007 Phil Smith and Rachel Gardner (Great Southern Film & Television)

2008 Melanie Rakena and Jane Andrews (Jam TV)

2009 Richard Fletcher

2010 Ainsley Gardiner and Cliff Curtis

2011 Catherine Fitzgerald

2012 Peter Young

2013 Matthew Metcalfe

2014 Taika Waititi & Chelsea Winstanley

2015 Philly de Lacey

2016 Carthew Neal

2017 Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton (Brown Sugar Apple Grunt Productions)

Industry Champion

Arthur Baysting (1999)

Lindsay Shelton (2000)

Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh (2001)

John Barnett (2002)

John McRae (2003)

Diana Rowan (2004)

Dave Gibson (2005)

Mladen Ivancic (2006)

Dick Reade (2007)

Caterina De Nave (2008)

Michael Stedman (2009)

Rob Tapert (2010)

John Harris (2011)

Vincent Burke (2012)

Anna Cahill (2013)

Matt Emery (2014)

Chris Bailey (2015)

Gaylene Preston (2016)

Richard Fletcher (2017)

ends

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