Ron McIntyre
As a war correspondent filming the New Zealand forces in Italy and the Middle East, Ron McIntyre played a key role in supplying the raw material for the early films of the National Film Unit. After nearly four years overseas, he returned home and tried his hand at independent filmmaking. McIntyre spent just over seven years with the NFU as a cameraman and director, and also worked briefly for Pacific Films.
Steven O'Meagher
Producer Steven O'Meagher is the founder of Auckland production company Desert Road, whose work includes acclaimed TV police drama Harry and Emmy-nominated docudrama The Golden Hour. O'Meagher developed Bill O'Brien's Aramoana massacre account 22 Hours of Terror into acclaimed feature Out of the Blue. The film went on to box office success and multiple Qantas awards.
Lesley Vanderwalt
Kiwi hair and makeup artist Lesley Vanderwalt won an Oscar and a Bafta for her work on Mad Max: Fury Road. She also collaborated with director George Miller on Babe 2, Nicole Kidman mini-series Bangkok Hilton and the second Mad Max movie. The onetime Wellington hairdresser had makeup duties on early Kiwi classics The Governor, Skin Deep and Bad Blood, before a slew of Australian credits (Shine, Moulin Rouge!).
Leanne Saunders
Leanne Saunders’ eye for talent has resulted in producer credits on six features: box office hits Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Born to Dance, Nazi horror The Devil’s Rock, and dramas Desert, The Weight of Elephants and Christmas. She also executive produced a run of successful shorts. In 2016 Saunders was appointed Head of Production and Development at the NZ Film Commission.
Amanda Evans
The trio of documentaries surrounding the religious community of Gloriavale generated huge TV ratings. Amanda Evans is the director and producer behind this mini-TV phenomenon. In her 30 year career she has produced and/ or directed documentaries, reality series and iconic Kiwi kids and arts shows.
Dan Henry
Since debuting in the late 90s as presenter of crime-solving show Crimescene, Dan Henry has gone on to direct a range of non-fiction programmes, from Country Calendar and Here to Stay, to Lost in Libya, the acclaimed tale of the Kiwis who were part of World War II's Long Range Desert Patrol.
Ivars Berzins
Ivars Berzins fell in love with photography aged eight, en route to TV assignments across NZ, in Norwegian fjords, and in East Timor. Berzins was chief cameraman in TVNZ's Wellington office before leaving in 1996 to start company Pacific Crews (now Pacific Screen), which he went on to run with his wife, producer Amanda Evans. These days he directs as well as films, including on documentary series New Zealand Stories.
Stephen Kang
Born in South Korea, Stephen Kang moved to New Zealand as a teen, then studied at Auckland University's Elam School of Fine Arts. His debut feature, Korean émigré tale {Dream} Preserved was judged Best Digital Feature at the 2006 NZ Screen Awards. Kang scored further success with Blue — which follows a children's TV mascot with blue skin, who is reduced to working as a waiter. It won the Critics' Week section of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, after being one of 1250 initial entries. The same year saw the release of Kang’s feature Desert, the tale of a woman abandoned by her fiancé on her wedding day.
Simon Price
Simon Price grew up in Dunedin. Named most innovative graduate at Melbourne's VCA Film School, he worked in Australia for many years as a writer/director, editor and video artist before returning home to help edit King Kong. Price's feature editing credits have since included Blackspot, landmark Samoan drama The Orator, Cambodian-set fable Ruin, Pā Boys, and docos Last Men Standing and Antarctica: A Year On Ice.
John Sheils
A pioneer of computer-generated imagery in New Zealand, John Sheils helped conjure angry cave trolls, flying buzzy bees and herds of roaming TV sets. Time as a camera operator fueled his interest in images unconstrained by gravity or nature. Sheils went on to work on The Fellowship of the Ring, Perfect Creature, Spartacus, and a run of video games and adverts — plus Red Scream, NZ’s first CG short film.