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LeoKoziol

Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Rakaipaaka
  • Film festival director
PROFILE_ Leo Koziol

Leo Koziol founded and directed the Wairoa Māori Film Festival for more than two decades, celebrating Māori and Indigenous cinema —initially at the Gaiety Theatre in Wairoa, before moving to Kahungunu Marae in Nūhaka. After working in regional planning in Auckland and San Francisco, Koziol returned to New Zealand as Wairoa’s District Planner, where he saw the potential to revitalise his community via art and film, founding the festival in 2005. He co-curated Ngā Whanaunga at the NZIFF as well as Indigenous film programmes internationally. He was the subject of short doco Native in Nūhaka and, in 2019, was recognised with a Te Aupounamu Māori in Screen Excellence Award. Koziol passed away in August 2026, aged 57.

Screenography

Native in Nūhaka
2017 Subject Short film

“Leo understood that film is more than entertainment — it is whakapapa, identity, memory and hope.”

— Screen Hawke’s Bay tribute to Leo Koziol, Waatea News, August 2026

Awards

2019 New Zealand Film Commission
Te Aupounamu Māori Screen Excellence Award