Howard Moses
In the 1980s ex-NZBC staffer Howard Moses produced and directed a trio of award-winning alpine films: Across the Main Divide, Incredible Mountains and Turn of the Century (a history of skiing in NZ). Winter Olympic chronicle Zimska Olimpijada won best doco at 1987's Mountainfilm in Telluride Festival. Based in Australia since 1991, Moses has worked in TV in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
Michael Firth
Director Michael Firth was an unheralded figure in the Kiwi film renaissance. His debut movie, ski film Off the Edge, was the first New Zealand feature to be Oscar-nominated. Noted US critic Andrew Sarris praised drama Sylvia, based on teacher Sylvia Ashton-Warner, as one of 1985's best films. Firth's subjects ranged from incest to fishing; his TV series Adrenalize sold to 50 countries. He passed away on 9 October 2016.
Barrie Everard
Barrie Everard was a significant Kiwi player in the business of movies over four decades. After distributing films in a highly competitive market, he founded the Berkeley Cinema chain. Everard produced adventure movie The Leading Edge (1987) and executive produced Never Say Die. He was the first exhibitor/ distributor to sit on the board of the NZ Film Commission, and was chair from 2002 to 2006. He died on 14 November 2016.
Mathurin Molgat
While making his mark as a professional skier, Canadian-born Mathurin Molgat began displaying his skills in front of the camera. After meeting Kiwi director Michael Firth, he ended up co-starring in Firth's 1987 movie The Leading Edge, as an adventurer in Aotearoa. Since then Molgat has lent his outdoor skills to films and 30+ commercials. In 2012 he directed his own film: the much travelled environmental documentary Song of the Kauri. Long based in Queenstown, Mathurin has also promoted Queenstown overseas as a skiing and filming location. He is co-owner of essential oils company Wilding & Co.
Gus Roxburgh
Nelson-born Gus Roxburgh, who works in Los Angeles for the media arm of Red Bull, has carved a career by combining his love of the outdoors and his passion for filmmaking. As comfortable in front of the camera as he is behind it, Roxburgh has made films in some of the world’s most dangerous places — from New Zealand’s Southern Alps to the streets of South Los Angeles.
Bernadine Oliver-Kerby
Bernadine Oliver-Kerby’s 25 plus years in broadcasting have ranged from sports reporting (including All Blacks tests and the Olympics) to reading the news — she was a longtime co-presenter on the One News weekend slot. Oliver-Kerby has hosted sports show Skoda Game On, the Halberg sports awards and quiz show New Zealand’s Brainiest Kid; she is also an award-winning radio newsreader.
Ian Taylor
Former Spot On presenter Ian Taylor, CNZM, is the founder of computer graphics company Animation Research Limited. ARL made its name providing real-time sports graphics at the 1992 America's Cup, and has gone on to apply their technology to golf, cricket, tennis and Formula One car-racing around the globe.
Roger Mirams
Roger Mirams helped launch legendary independent company Pacific Films in 1948, and went on to co-direct Broken Barrier in 1952 with John O'Shea — the only Kiwi feature made that decade. In 1957, Mirams set up a Pacific Films branch in Melbourne. Over the next five decades he won a reputation in Australia for his children's TV shows. Mirams was still working in his 80s; he passed away in February 2004.
Stuart Dryburgh
Cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh has helped create some of the most iconic images of New Zealand cinema: the girl with a mop of red hair, standing at the end of a country road in Angel at my Table; the piano on a deserted beach in The Piano, and the charged kitchen scenes of Once Were Warriors.
Sam Neill
One of New Zealand's best known screen actors, Sam Neill possesses a blend of everyman ordinariness, charm and good looks that have made him an international leading man. His resume of television and 70+ feature films includes leading roles in landmark New Zealand movies, from a man alone on the run in breakout feature Sleeping Dogs to the repressed settler in The Piano.