Mark Beesley
With the movie Savage Honeymoon and classic TV show Outrageous Fortune, Mark Beesley established himself as the man to call when dealing with rough and tumble families from West Auckland. Elsewhere the talented director and sometime producer has shown his gift for melding comedy and drama on The Almighty Johnsons, Insiders Guide to Happiness, and Xena: Warrior Princess.
Yvonne Mackay
Yvonne Mackay is a prolific director of New Zealand television, whose work has often focused on the arts and projects made for young people. She made history as the director of The Silent One (1984), the first New Zealand feature film directed solely by a woman. These days Mackay runs Wellington company Production Shed TV.
Fran Walsh
Fran Walsh is an Academy Award-winning screenwriter, film producer and musician. She has collaborated with her partner Peter Jackson on all his films since Meet the Feebles (1989), and was nominated for her first Oscar after co-writing Heavenly Creatures (1994). In 2004, Walsh shared three Oscar wins for her work on the final episode of the Lord of the Rings.
Scott Reynolds
Known for his stylish reinventions of familiar genres, Scott Reynolds followed successful short A Game with No Rules, with rave reviews and a host of awards for his debut feature, serial killer tale The Ugly. Two further movies — Heaven and When Strangers Appear — have followed.
David Blyth
David Blyth cemented his place in the Kiwi filmmaking renaissance with two films that left social realism far behind: 1978 experimental feature Angel Mine, and 1984's Death Warmed Up, New Zealand's first homegrown horror movie. Since then Blyth's work has included family friendly vampire film Moonrise, a number of documentaries on war, and varied works exploring sexuality.
Nicola Murphy
Actor Nicola Murphy made her big screen debut in 1995 in the offbeat fantasy Jack Brown Genius. She followed it by playing Rose in the acclaimed Magik and Rose, before co-starring opposite American actor Judge Reinhold in rural romance Wild Blue.
Rose McIver
After appearing briefly in The Piano at age three, Rose McIver went on to star in big budget fantasy series Maddigan’s Quest while still a teen. Since then she has played one of the passengers in true life train disaster tale Tangiwai - A Love Story, and completed a five season run in American series iZombie, starring as a crime-solving zombie. She is set to co-star in Kiwi movie musical Daffodils.
Tim Balme
Tim Balme burst onto the big screen as the hapless young man fighting off zombies with lawnmowers, in Peter Jackson's Braindead. He went on to roles on TV's Mercy Peak, Shortland Street and Maddigan's Quest, alongside gigs as a writer (Outrageous Fortune) and time as Head of Development for South Pacific Pictures.
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.
Elizabeth Knox
The novels of Elizabeth Knox range from autobiographically-based fiction to fantasy. One of New Zealand's most successful writers, she found an international audience in 1998 with breakthrough novel Vintner's Luck. This tale of angels and French vineyards has been brought to the screen by Whale Rider director Niki Caro.