Mark Albiston
Mark Albiston has won awards at festivals in Cannes, Berlin and Salt Lake City, thanks to short films Run and The Six Dollar Fifty Man (which he directed with Louis Sutherland). After time in the United Kingdom, Albiston returned home to launch Sticky Pictures, where he won gongs for arts shows The Living Room and The Gravy. Alibston and Sutherland's 2013 movie Shopping won further awards and acclaim.
Philippa Boyens
Philippa Boyens (incredibly) began her screenwriting career with The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Before then the long-time Tolkien fan had worked mainly in theatre. Return of the King won Boyens an Oscar, a BAFTA, and many other awards. She next worked with Jackson and Walsh on King Kong, and an adaptation of novel The Lovely Bones. Boyens returned to Middle-earth for The Hobbit.
Dick Weir
The distinctive deep voice of veteran broadcaster Dick Weir, QSM, is known to generations of Kiwi kids as a longtime Radio New Zealand National presenter (The Dick Weir Sunday Show, Ears). On screen he has narrated everything from election campaigns to Erebus docudramas to Wild South. Weir was also the inaugural presenter of 80s after-school news programme The Video Dispatch.
Ken Clark
Christchurch editor, artist and animator Ken Clark turned a childhood passion for magic and monsters into stop motion animation. After making student films, a decade at TVNZ saw him editing staples across news, sport, and children's programming. He also designed titles for After School and CGI for What Now?. Since 1990 Clark has tutored in animation; his shorts have shown in galleries and festivals.
Zane Holmes
Fascinated by every stage of the television process, Zane Holmes began in the backroom as an editor and has gone on to stints in producing, directing and visual effects. After getting his directing break on hit Being Eve, he later joined Jeremy Dillon as a partner in company Pop-Up Workshop,which specialises in shows for children. They followed series Pop-Up with The Moe Show, starring a friendly creature with big ears.
Michael Heath
Though Michael Heath helped create a run of pioneering examples of the Kiwi cinema of unease, his contributions to our culture defy easy categorisation. His scripts include many films which have made a comfortable home between genres: children’s vampire tale Moonrise/Grampire, nostalgic Ronald Hugh Morrieson chiller The Scarecrow, Heath’s work with director Tony Williams, and his acclaimed song-cycle A Small Life.
Maggie Barry
A lover of gardens from childhood with a diploma in horticulture, Maggie Barry spent four years on the news frontline as co-host of National Radio’s Morning Report from 1986 to 1989. As presenter of TV hit Maggie’s Garden Show she was the face of NZ gardening for 12 years. After time in freelance journalism and radio she was elected MP for North Shore in 2011, and became a cabinet minister in 2014.
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.
Ngila Dickson
Ngila Dickson, ONZM, has designed costumes for vampires, university professors, fertility cults, and wizards in pointy hats. And that's only counting the work she has done for Kiwi filmmakers. Since sharing an Academy Award and a BAFTA for The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Dickson has contributed her costume prowess to movies in Japan, Germany, South Africa and Los Angeles.
Tim Woodhouse
Tim Woodhouse has cut some of New Zealand’s most celebrated documentaries since crossing from Australia in 1989. Although he won a Best Editing award for drama Staunch, Woodhouse has largely specialised in documentary. En route he has worked with director Leanne Pooley on Haunting Douglas, Topp Twins hit Untouchable Girls, Beyond The Edge (about Hillary on Everest), and animated film 25 April.