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AinsleyGardiner

Te-Whānau a Apanui, Ngāti Pikiao and Ngāti Awa
  • Producer
Ainsley-Gardiner-Key-Profile.jpg

Ainsley Gardiner, MNZM, has been a producer on a run of successful short films and hit movies. She worked with Taika Waititi and Cliff Curtis on Oscar-nominated short Tama Tu, and features Eagle vs Shark and Boy. Gardiner launched Miss Conception Films with producer Georgina Conder. Their work includes comedy The Breaker Uppers and doco She Shears. Her directorial debut was Cousins, with co-director Briar Grace-Smith.

 

Screenography

Red, White and Brass
2023 Executive Producer Film
Not Even
2023 Director, Executive Producer Series
Cousins
2021 Producer, Co-Director Film
Night Raiders
2021 Producer Film
Reunion
2020 Producer Film

Biography

Ainsley Gardiner fell in love with film in Whakatane. Growing up there on a diet of "mostly really bad Hollywood movies" helped clarify what makes a film good; it also fuelled a desire to work in the screen industry. Since then Gardiner has sought out stories by two groups who have often battled to be heard on-screen: Māori and women. 

Awards

2018 Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit
For Services to Film and Television 

2011 Aotearoa Film and Television Awards
Best Short Film: Ebony Society

“Extremely intelligent, very bright and very savvy ... she has an astounding capacity and capability, the amount of work she does.”

— Cliff Curtis on Ainsley Gardiner, in The NZ Herald, 22 March 2010

Related images

Eagle-vs-Shark-5.jpg
Official film poster for Eagle Vs Shark.
©New Zealand Film Commission
Eagle-vs-Shark-1.jpg
Jarrod (Jemaine Clement) and Lily (Loren Taylor), in a scene from 2007 movie Eagle vs Shark.
©NZ Film Commission