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TonyHiles

  • Director
  • Producer
Tony_Hiles_Key_Profile.jpg

British-born Tony Hiles began working in the Kiwi screen industry in the mid 1960s. He went on to direct a run of live television, a documentary about director Peter Jackson, and an ambitious, decade-long series of films following artist Michael Smither. In 1996 he won an NZ Film Best Director award for his only feature, Jack Brown Genius. Hiles died on 6 February 2021.

Screenography

In Memoriam 2021
2021 Subject Short film
Michael Smither 10
2019 Producer Short film
Michael Smither: of Crimson Joy
2018 Director, Producer, Camera Short film
Michael Smither: Light through the Trees
2017 Director, Producer, Camera Short film
The HeART of the Matter
2016 Camera Film

Biography

Director/producer Tony Hiles could be eloquent and straight to the point. A lover of hard work, small film crews, a snappy shirt and the occasional practical joke, Hiles worked on hundreds of productions over a career which encompassed both state television and  independent filmmaking. 

Awards

1996 TV Guide New Zealand Film and Television Awards
Best Director - Film: for Jack Brown, Genius

1996 Fantasporto - Porto International Film Festival (Portugal, Fantasy Festival)
Nominated for Best International Fantasy Film: Jack Brown, Genius

“Shoot straight and don’t take no for an answer unless it’s the answer you want.”

— Tony Hiles

Related images

Braindead_Gallery.jpg
Late 1991, filming a scene from Braindead at Wellington Zoo: from left to right, camera operator Mark Olsen, actor (and sometime director) Tony Hiles, Peter Jackson, and the film's stars, Spaniard Diana Penalver and Tim Balme. 
Photographer: Tyrone Kallmoier. Kindly provided by The Dominion Post.
Normal_Elder__Tony_Hiles__Dave_Gibson_Gallery.jpg
From left: Norman Elder, Tony Hiles, Dave Gibson.
Photographer: David Elmer. Kindly provided by The Dominion Post
Rena-Owen-and-TOny-Hiles-gallery.jpg
Director Tony Hiles, Actress Rena Owen and New Zealand Film Commission representative Richard Stewart at Cannes.
Kindly provided by Onfilm
One-man-and-the-sea-gallery-5.jpg
The crew of One Man and the Sea. From Left to Right are: Ken Saville (sound), Tony Hiles (director and producer), Bridget Bourke (assistant producer), Don Duncan (cinematographer) and Ian Paul (camera).
© Tony Hiles
Flight-of-Fancy-gallery-2.jpg
On the set of Flight of Fancy.
Kindly provided by Tony Hiles.