MichaelFirth
- Director
Director Michael Firth was an unheralded figure in the Kiwi film renaissance. His debut movie, ski film Off the Edge, was the first New Zealand feature to be Oscar-nominated. Noted US critic Andrew Sarris praised drama Sylvia, based on teacher Sylvia Ashton-Warner, as one of 1985's best films. Firth's subjects ranged from incest to fishing; his TV series Adrenalize sold to 50 countries. He passed away on 9 October 2016.
Screenography
Biography
Writer and director Michael Firth showed his versatility by mining drama in everything from high energy ski footage, to inspirational schoolteachers. Firth got hooked into filmmaking aged 19, after experimenting with 8mm film and making a documentary about a tribe of Indians, while living with them in the Brazilian jungle.
Awards
1977 Academy Awards
Nominated for Best Feature Documentary: Off the Edge
1977 Festival of the Americas
Gold Medal: Off the Edge
“This is a movie of eloquent dialogue and even more eloquent silences; of wonderful faces that tell whole worlds in a glance, a pause, a kiss in the rain. Of such are the glories of cinema made.”