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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sam Blackley
A Diploma in Broadcast Communication led Sam Blackley to a gig with high profile company Communicado, then a run producing youth shows Space, Squeeze, and Coast. Her other career highlights include three years as Channel Manager at Sky TV’s Documentary Channel, and five seasons producing community celebration series Neighbourhood.
Vincent Ward
Vincent Ward has won an international reputation as an original and visionary filmmaker. Vigil and The Navigator played in competition at the Cannes Film Festival (the first New Zealand features to do so). Docudrama Rain of the Children (2008) revisited people from his 1980 documentary In Spring One Plants Alone. Ward also directed Robin Williams afterlife drama What Dreams May Come.
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.