Kiwi Oscar Heroes | NZ On Screen

Spotlight

25.02.2013

When the final Lord of the Rings won Oscar glory on 29 February 2004, jokes were made about running out of New Zealanders to thank. Taika’s nap and Paquin’s stutter made awards night news as well. Along with the big notes of The Piano and the Oscar magnet that is Miramar, there’s also a largely unsung legacy of NZ Academy recognition. Exalt it via the 11 titles in NZ On Screen's inaugural Spotlight collection: from Two Cars to a woozy animated gold rush tale, to a vertiginous adventure ski doco and more ...

The Frog, the Dog, and the Devil

Short Film, 1986 (Animation, Historical)

Bob Stenhouse offers an animated ode to the "nation of drunkards" (as New Zealand was tagged in the House of Lords in 1838). Set in 1902, a shepherd tricks a Mackenzie barman out of a bottle of ‘Hokonui Lightning', but too much pioneer spirit sees... Read more ›

Off the Edge

Film, 1977 (Sport, Documentary)

Off the Edge is director Michael Firth's ode to the exhilaration of adventuring on the spine of NZ's Southern Alps. Something of a snowy Endless Summer, Firth follows an American and a Canadian as they ski, hang-glide, walk, climb and delve beneath glaciers, over nine... Read more ›

The Piano

Film, 1993 (Drama, Historical)

Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter) has been mute since she was six. She travels from Scotland with her daughter (Anna Paquin) and her grand piano to colonial New Zealand for an arranged marriage. When her husband, a stoic settler (Sam Neill) sells the piano to Baines... Read more ›

Two Cars, One Night

Short Film, 2003 (Drama, Māori)

Youngsters Romeo, Ed, and Polly wait in two cars after dark while their parents are inside drinking. It’s a situation many Kiwis would recognise: cars in loco parentis outside the bar or rugby club. Soon cross-car rivalry warms to budding friendship. Winning performances, and the... Read more ›

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Film, 2003 (Adaptation, Adventure, Fantasy)

Monstrous spiders, dragon-aided epic battles, endangered hobbits and final farewells ... the finale of the Lord of the Rings trilogy boldly upped the ante. Although the first two films had excited viewers, critics and accountants, Return of the King sealed Peter Jackson's place in movie... Read more ›

Heavenly Creatures

Film, 1994 (Drama, Crime, Thriller, Romance)

The movie that saw splatter-king Peter Jackson lauded by a whole new audience was born from Fran Walsh's long fascination with the Parker-Hulme case: two teenagers who invented imaginary worlds, wrote under imaginary personas, and in June 1954 murdered Pauline Parker's mother. Walsh and Jackson's... Read more ›

Snows of Aorangi

Short Film, 1955 (Sport, Documentary)

Shot by photographer Brian Brake as a NFU tourism promo, Snows of Aorangi surveys New Zealand's mountain landscapes. Brake captures stunning imagery: ethereal ice forests, lightning storms, volcanic craters, glaciers, avalanches, kea. Three skiers are mesmerising as they scythe downhill from Almer Hut: "for a... Read more ›

Whale Rider

Film, 2002 (Drama, Adaptation, Māori)

Set at the East Coast town of Whāngārā, Whale Rider tells the tale of a young Māori girl, Pai (Keisha Castle-Hughes), who challenges tradition and embraces the past in order to find the strength to lead her people forward. Directed and written by Niki Caro,... Read more ›

One Hundred and Forty Days Under the World

Short Film, 1964 (Documentary)

New Zealand’s Antarctic presence is still in its infancy as this striking Academy Award-nominated NFU documentary chronicles the six month polar summer of 1963/64. Sled teams pulled by teams of huskies are despatched to explore far flung corners, nothing is too small — or too... Read more ›

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Film, 2012 (Adaptation, Adventure, Fantasy)

JRR Tolkien's beloved novel The Hobbit followed Bilbo Baggins on a quest to reclaim the lost dwarf homeland of Erebor from the dragon Smaug. Shoulder-tapped by Gandalf for the mission, Bilbo is joined by a company of dwarves in an epic adventure: vying against goblins,... Read more ›

King Kong

Film, 2005 (Adventure, Fantasy)

Peter Jackson's love affair with moviemaking and special effects was ignited by seeing the original King Kong (1933) as a child. Jackson's Kiwi-shot remake takes one of cinema's most iconic monster movies, retains the 30s setting and iconic New York finale, and toughens up the... Read more ›

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