Dan Hennah
Art department veteran Dan Hennah worked on a range of screen projects before becoming an art director and set decorator on The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Five times Oscar nominated, he won an Academy Award for his work on The Return of the King. Since then Hennah has graduated to production designing on a number of features, including taking on the job for Peter Jackson's three-parter of The Hobbit.
Malcolm Hall
British-born Malcolm Hall moved from newspaper journalism into television, after emigrating downunder. Since then his career as a producer and director has seen him helming current affairs, comedy, children's TV, and varied documentaries which have screened around the globe. At the turn of the millennium, Hall began making television for company NHNZ.
Florian Habicht
Though most of his films have been documentaries, Florian Habicht's work has often blurred the boundaries between truth and fiction. His CV includes offbeat fairytale Woodenhead, two love letters to New Zealand's far north (Kaikohe Demolition, Land of the Long White Cloud), films on theatre legend Warwick Broadhead and Brit band Pulp, and his award-winning, genre-stretching romance Love Story.
Murray Newey
Murray Newey produced New Zealand's first horror film - Death Warmed Up, and went on to win international investment in four Kiwi-made features: Moonrise, Never Say Die, teen tale Bonjour Timothy and award-winner The Whole of the Moon.
Mark Hadlow
From an early role as a teen bully in Children of Fire Mountain, Mark Hadlow, ONZM, has gone on to work beside Billy T James, Peter Jackson, talking hedgehogs and mutant huhu grubs. The veteran actor/comedian is fondly remembered for playing a wide-eyed farmer on hit TV series Willy Nilly; in Jackson’s three-part adaptation of The Hobbit, he was grey-bearded Dori the dwarf.
Graeme Cowley
Cinematographer Graeme Cowley created the moody imagery for classic movies Utu and Smash Palace. Elsewhere he played another vital role in the Kiwi film renaissance, by establishing camera equipment hire company Film Facilities, alongside the late Nigel Hutchinson. Cowley went on to produce black comedy Carry Me Back, and work on the restoration of Utu.
Elizabeth Bourn
A well-known New Zealand television face for over two decades, Elizabeth Bourn provided continuity between shows. At WNTV-1 in the 60s she became known as ‘The Friday Girl’, hosting the network’s early evening shift. From the early 70s she spent 17 years with state TV as a continuity presenter. Her role was to keep evening programmes flowing with programme information, plus occasional weather and news.
Steve Locker-Lampson
After stints in the merchant navy and the British film industry, Steve Locker-Lampson began a new life in New Zealand in the 60s, heading the camera department at indie production house Pacific Films. The following decade he forged a reputation as one of the country's pioneer aerial cameramen, and worked behind the scenes on movies Solo and Smash Palace. Locker-Lampson passed away in October 2012.
Dean Cornish
Globetrotting director Dean Cornish's credit reel ranges from Intrepid Journeys to bold buildings, Extreme Tribes to Rachel Hunter, sex trafficking to This Town. Trained at Christchurch's NZ Broadcasting School, Cornish has produced films in more than 90 countries and crafted a reputation as a go-to guy for travel stories. He shared a Best Director gong at the 2011 Aotearoa Film and TV Awards for Making Tracks.
Phill Simmonds
Alongside his brother Jeff, Phill Simmonds has created a run of quirky short films, which utilise traditional animation to retell real-life stories. The films from the SPADA 2006 New Filmmaker of the Year (shared with Jeff) include family history tale A Very Nice Honeymoon and bickering band chronicle The Paselode Story. His latest project is an animated feature film based on Parihaka.