Air New Zealand Screen Awards 2007 finalists

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RUN finalist Rialto Channel Best Short Film

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Outrageous Fortune finalist for Sony Best Drama

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News release

Finalists demonstrate creative diversity of homegrown industry
Air New Zealand Screen Awards 2007 finalists

A stellar line up of familiar names and fresh newcomers in New Zealand film and television were announced tonight (3rd July 2007) as finalists in the country’s most prestigious film and television industry awards.

The Air New Zealand Screen Awards, well supported by the industry and led by the Screen Directors Guild of New Zealand (SDGNZ) is now in its third year. The standard of this years finalists further reflects the growing strength of local productions and the depth of talent in both film and television industries. The winners will be announced at the Air New Zealand Screen Awards 2007 ceremony which will take place at Auckland’s SkyCity Theatre on Wednesday August 1st.

Entries in this year’s film section feature a widely diverse range of stories highlighting a strong understanding of the craft and creativity of film amongst entrants. Entries span the full range of the genre spectrum from good humoured and insightful comedy to dark brooding drama.

Comedy is a strong feature of the films up for honours in the Images and Sound Digital Feature categories. The four films in line to take out the top spots in the genres two categories are The Waimate Conspiracy, The Devil Dared Me To, The Last Magic Show and You Move You Die.

The four short film categories will be fought out between six challengers. A strong contender is Mark Albiston’s Run with five nominations, Rachel Gardner and Peter Salmon’s Fog with three selections, and with one nomination each, Mike Jonathan’s Hawaikii, the Fiona Samuel scripted The Garden of Love, USO Brother from Miki Magasiva and Christopher Clark’s The King Boys.
“Short film is always a competitive category in New Zealand given our tradition of producing quality short films. This has been joined by a strong showing in the Digital feature category,” says SDGNZ President Annie Goldson.
“This latter development is surely the way of the future and we envisage that Digital features will assume an even greater presence in the years to come.”
Young talent dominates the finalists in the Performance in a Short Film with Fog’s twenty year old Chelsie Preston Crayford in line to take honours alongside Run’s up and coming stars Tyrrell Samia (9yrs) and Helayna Seiuli (12 yrs).

“The calibre of young actors in the Rialto Channel Performance in Short Film category is exceptionally high with a number of fresh new faces on screen that nonetheless have strong presence and real acting skill. Again, as with short films, young Kiwis have had a tradition of strong performance. This year's crop could well join the ranks of the Anna Paquins and Keisha Castle-Hughes,” says Goldson.

Rialto Channel Technical Contribution to a Short Film will be fought out between John Harding (The King Boys), Ginny Loane (Fog) and Simon Baumfield (Run).

The Air New Zealand Screen Awards 2007 will also decide winners in 24 television categories, and South Pacific Productions Outrageous Fortune leads all the finalists with 16 finalist selections. It will contest the Sony Best Drama Programme alongside strong contenders Shortland St and Debra Kelleher/TVNZ’s Karaoke High.

Kelleher also makes the cut with the popular entertainment show Dancing With the Stars. It will be competing with Marae DIY produced by Hula Haka Productions and Screentime, and Mark Albiston - Sticky Pictures’ The Living Room for the title of Best Lifestyle/Entertainment programme.

Mark Albiston, a popular finalist with his short film Run, which was awarded an honourable mention at this years Cannes film festival, also features strongly in the Television categories. He scores nominations in both Achievement in Directing, Documentary (The Magical World of Misery – Ep 1 Artsville) and in Achievement in Directing Factual Programming /Entertainment (The Living Room), Mark’s production company Sticky Pictures typifies the diverse range of directing talent in NZ with a host of award-winning arts and extreme sports TV shows, documentaries, commercials and music videos under his belt.

In the latter category he is up against Rupert MacKenzie with Hidden in the Numbers and Peter Young’s Hunger for the Wild. The final two contenders for Achievement in Directing Documentary category are James Frankham’s Pacific Solution and Justin Pemberton’s Love, Speed and Loss. Visionary Films’ Love, Speed and Loss is also a contender for New Zealand On Air Best Documentary joined by Leanne Pooley for Try Revolution and Production Line’s Touch Wood. Best Factual category will be fought out by Hunger for Wild (Peter Young and Tracey Roe) Hidden in the Numbers (Mark McNeill and Dianne Lindesay) and Emergency (Jenny Williams).

Peter Young is also nominated for his work as a cameraman on Country Calendar. He is up against Simon Raby (Elgar’s Enigma: Biography of a Concerto) and James Ellis – Ngai Tahu Communications (Waka Reo Series II) for Achievement in Camerawork Documentary.

Love, Speed and Loss (Bryan Shaw), Hidden In The Numbers (John Fraser) and Try Revolution (Tim Woodhouse) all receive a nod from the judges for Images and Sound Achievement in Editing Documentary.

In the SDGNZ Achievement in Directing Drama/Comedy category Outrageous Fortune takes the honours all round, with its directors fighting for the top spot with Michael Bennett, Simon Bennett and Mark Beesley all nominated.

Outrageous Fortune is on top again in the Script, Drama Category with two of its writers Rachel Lang and James Griffin up for honours. Lang also gets the nod in this category for Maddigan’s Quest.

Maddigan's Quest is also a finalist in Best Children’s Programme where it is joined by Let’s Get Inventin and The Killian Curse.

There’s plenty of laughs in the finalists for Best Comedy Programme where the bro’ Town adventurers find themselves up against Leigh Hart’s Moon TV (Series 3) and Wayne Anderson Singer Of Songs.

In Korero Maori Best Maori Language Programme, Te Tau Whakamahara I a Tumatauenga comes up against Korereo Ki Nga Kararehe and Korowai o Te Aroha.

Best Sport Programme is a new category added this year and finalists include Code Ep 32, IRB Rugby Sevens – Wellington (Ep 1) and The Chosen Ones – John Walker.

Best Event Broadcast and Best Reality Series nominations further demonstrate the diversity of television production with popular shows like Piha Rescue, Henderson to Hollywood and Tough Act making the finals. Coverage of great events like Vodafone X-Air 2006, Na Ratou Mo Tatou – They Did It For Us and Te Arkinui Dame Te Atairrangikaahu all get a nod from the judges.

Maddigan’s Quest (Victoria Kelly), Hunger for Wild (The Bads – Dianne Swann and Brett Adams) and Outrageous Fortune (Joel Haines) are all finalists for Achievement in Original Music. The same three programmes appear for Images and Sound Contribution to a Soundtrack with Carl Smith and Rodney Larsen (Maddigan’s Quest), Beth Tredray (Hunger for the Wild) and Carl Smith and Steve Finnigan (Outrageous Fortune) contesting for honours.

“The finalists in the television categories demonstrate what a diverse beast New Zealand television is. This year’s finalists feature a mix of practitioners who specialize in one genre and then there are those who span the full gamut of genres showing the flexibility that our industry has developed,” says Goldson.

As for in front of the camera, familiar faces take front stage for Performance by an Actress with Robyn Malcolm (Outrageous Fortune), Rose McIver (Maddigan’s Quest) and Amanda Billing (Shortland St) vying for honours. Battling it out for the best Actor Gong is Outrageous Fortune’s Grant Bowler and Antony Starr, and Maddigan’s Quest Jordan Metcalfe.

Outrageous Fortune also provides finalists for Performance by a Supporting Actor/Actress with Siobhan Marshall, Antonia Prebble, Tammy Davis and Frank Whitten all receiving nominations. They are joined by Will Wallace (Orange Roughies) and Anna Julliene (Shortland Street). Men dominate the Presenter Entertainment/Factual category with Vodafone Select Live host Joel Defries up against Dancing with the Stars’ Jason Gunn and Te Radar for Hidden in the Numbers.

In total, 36 separate productions have been selected as finalists for the Air New Zealand Screen Awards 2007 which makes for good competition across the industry.

“Even though some of the same names crop up across a number of categories, the sheer number of productions indicates there is still a strong diverse range of quality productions being made in NZ. This stimulates genuine competition, which is always a good thing but often difficult to attain in an industry the size of New Zealand,” says Goldson.

A full list of all Television & Film finalists are included behind and also available as downloadable pdf files www.sdgnz.co.nz (click on the Awards tab from the home page).

ENDS

See...
Film finalists (PDF)
TV Finalists (PDF)

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