Samuel & Cox 2005 Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellows

For Immediate Release
December 20, 2004

Experienced film makers and writers Fiona Samuel and Peter Cox have been selected as the 2005 Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellows.

The Fellowship offers outstanding writers the opportunity to write full time, free of financial pressures, while living in a central Auckland apartment.

Buddle Findlay National Chairman, Sarah Roberts, says the award is about giving talented writers the freedom to focus on their creative activities.

"This is an opportunity for some of New Zealand's most talented writers to further develop their ideas, viewpoints and visions and to contribute to the intellectual capital of our country.

"This year the fellowship goes to two writers and filmmakers who have already made a significant contribution to the arts in New Zealand. They clearly have the potential to create new and challenging works that will be enjoyed by a wide audience."

Caption: Graeme Lay of the Sargeson Trust with the two new Sargeson
fellows, Peter Cox and Fiona Samuel.

Fiona Samuel trained and worked as an actor before turning to writing and is currently working on projects for television and film as well as writing a new stage play. Her past successes include the stage plays The Wedding party, Lashings of Whipped Cream - A session with a teenage Dominatrix and One Flesh.

Her television writing includes the highly acclaimed series The Marching Girls, the trio of monologues, Face Value and the drama Home Movie. She has also written and directed two short films, Bitch and Song of the Siren. The latter was the winner of the Mikeldi de Ficcion D'Oro at the Bilbao Film festival and the audience award at the Turin Film Festival in 1997.

She will take up the Fellowship in February 2005 and plans to complete her new stage play while in residence.

Peter Cox, one of New Zealand's young and rising playwrights, created the Insider's Guide to Happiness, which was reviewed as a "quirky urban television drama with strong, believable and quirky kiwi characters."

Over 13 episodes, the Insiders Guide to Happiness followed the lives of 8 individuals on their own separate life journeys, but whose fates become increasingly interlinked through processes that explore concepts as diverse as chaos theory, reincarnation, love death and the afterlife.

Before Insider's, Peter was responsible for Five Short Seminars on How to Discipline Your Dog at Wellington's Fringe 2000 Festival and the Australian radio play Dating Service Success Story, which played on Sydney radio in 2001. He was also awarded 'Best New Playwright' in 2002 for his play the Plum Tree.

Peter is currently working on a range of theatre, film and television projects and his The Swans, written for Radio New Zealand, will air this summer. Peter will take up his tenure in July and plans to complete his next stage play during his stay.

The Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship is a national literary fellowship offered annually in partnership with The Frank Sargeson Trust. It provides the opportunity each year for an outstanding New Zealand writer(s) to write full time 'in residence' with a monthly stipend.

Buddle Findlay has been involved with the Fellowship since 1997.

Past Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellows (from 1997 onwards) include Karyn Hay, Craig Marriner, Toa Fraser, Debra Daley, Denis Baker, Riemke Ensing, Vivienne Plumb, Chad Taylor, Shonagh Koea, Diane Brown, Catherine Chidgey, Sarah Quigley, Tina Shaw, Kapka Kassabova, Sue Reidy, James Brown and Charlotte Grimshaw.

Past Sargeson Trust fellows include Janet Frame, Alan Duff, Kevin Ireland, Michael King, Marilyn Duckworth.

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