Kirsty Cameron
Kirsty Cameron started in short film and art installation, before costume designing the first of around 20 feature films — including the acclaimed Whale Rider, Slow West, and No. 2. Her list of awards also includes The Orator and TV movie Jean, about aviator Jean Batten. Cameron's third short as writer/ director, teen fable The Lethal Innocents, was invited to festivals in Sweden, Germany and the USA.
Jess Feast
Jess Feast is a documentary maker whose work covers everything from Berlin and ballet to the Flight of the Conchords. Cowboys & Communists examined cultural conflicts in post-cold war Berlin via a US-themed bar and residents of the tower block it’s housed in. 2013 breakout hit Gardening with Soul follows a year in the life of a vivacious nonagenarian nun and won the Best Documentary Moa (NZ Film) award.
Brian Brake
Although generally regarded as New Zealand's most successful international photographer, Brian Brake also worked in motion pictures, as both director and cinematographer. At the Government's National Film Unit he directed the first Kiwi film nominated for an Academy Award (Snows of Aorangi). Later he worked for prestigious photo agency Magnum, and featured in photo journals Life and National Geographic.
Lauren Jackson
Aged 15, Lauren Jackson swapped high school and amateur theatre to star in movie Alex, inspired by the Tessa Duder bestseller about a teenage swimmer who competes in the Olympic Games. Time in Germany fuelled the writing of both Jackson's first play (the award-winning Exchange), and university studies on the German and Kiwi film industries. Since graduating from acting school Toi Whakaari in 2001, she has appeared on stage and screen, and directed two short films: family tale I'm Going to Mum's — which won four awards, and was invited to the 2013 Berlin Film Festival — and 2017 drama Tree.
Chris Harrington
Chris Harrington began in local television in 1976, reporting and producing current affairs and news. Highlights of his career include award-winning Sunday stories about allegations of police pack rape by Louise Nicholas, and another on treatment of Porirua Hospital inmates. In 1989 he was awarded a QSM for services to journalism. In 2007 Harrington moved into private production and public relations.
Waka Attewell
Cinematographer Waka Attewell has been shooting images of New Zealand for over 30 years. He began his career at John O' Shea's Pacific Films and later established his own production company Valhalla Films, where he has filmed and directed a run of commercials, films and documentaries.
Dave Mason
After a career producing a range of TV programmes in the United Kingdom and Germany, Dave Mason relocated to New Zealand in 1999. He began working with Julie Christie at Touchdown Productions on cooking show Ready Steady Cook, then started producing Jim’s Car Show for TVNZ, hosted by weather presenter Jim Hickey. Working on this and further shows with Hickey (A Flying Visit, The Real Middle Earth) he formed Dave Mason productions in 2004, and in 2007 launched long-running careers show Just the Job. Mason has also directed and written further TVNZ shows, including Ellerslie and Maggie’s Garden Show.
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.
Peter Coates
If director and producer Peter Coates was a superhero, he’d surely be ‘Renaissance Man’. His contribution to championing the arts on television is arguably heroic, and his career multi-faceted. From 1971 to 2004 Coates produced, directed or scripted hundreds of TV productions covering a smorgasbord of topics, from operas to soap operas, and from portraits of New Zealand artists to rugby coaching films.
Jack Body
Jack Body, OMNZ, composed for everything from gamelan orchestras to the Kronos Quartet, and was a leading figure in awakening local interest in Asian and Pacific music. His soundtrack work ranged across children’s tales, te reo dramas and nature films. His collaborations with director Vincent Ward include classic film Vigil, and (with John Gibson), 2008’s Rain of the Children. Body passed away on 10 May 2015.