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A production resurgence is helping to buoy New Zealand screen industry optimism amid an unprecedented financial crisis and the prospect of a new government after nine years of film-friendly policies. [...]

Film When New Zealand's newest soundstage, at Henderson Valley Studios in Auckland, opens July/August, it will be bigger than the complex Peter Jackson built to house King Kong and where [...]

Production prospects for the next year are positive but concerns linger over the future of the Film Fund, the level of TVNZ commissioning and the failure of the Government to [...]

The opening of the Stone Street Studio Complex in the heart of Wellywood--aka Miramar, Wellington--at last provides New Zealand with the soundstage facilities needed to make movies bigger than King [...]

The World's Fastest Indian kick-started not only a record-breaking run of Kiwi movies at the box office this time last year but also a lucrative source of foreign investment: Asia. [...]

New Zealand's first free-to-air digital TV platform, FreeView, will launch early next year but for producers the devil will be in the fine-tuning. At presstime the networks weren't signalling their [...]

Dave Gibson has made a significant contribution to the New Zealand screen industry as the founding chairman of the Independent Producers and Directors Guild, a chairman and exec member of [...]

The first joint awards between the Screen Directors Guild and the NZ Television Broadcasters' Council won't be telecast until several weeks after they're held. Finalists in the Qantas Film and [...]

The Discovery Channel has adapted TV3's WA$TED! as one of the flagship shows for the Planet Green channel it will launch next month in the United States. Local versions of [...]

The New Zealand Film Festival is losing the support of thousands of filmgoers in Auckland and Wellington. Admissions for other centres were still being compiled at press-time but patronage was [...]

'New Zealand's open for business.' That's Film New Zealand chair Dave Madigan's take on the dearth of domestic and international production lined up for the rest of the year (at [...]

The only way to view Sione's Wedding on DVD in its proper aspect ratio is illegally. The pirated DVDs that circulated before the $4 million hit opened last year are [...]

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- Barrie Osborne, Oscar-winning producer of the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, is prepping a biopic of Formula 1 racing legend Bruce McLaren. The $100 million project, [...]

Exhibition/distribution identity Royce Moodabe has retired after 57 years in the business. The eldest of pioneering exhibitor MJ (Michael Joseph) Moodabe's three sons, he was farewelled at a 20th Century [...]

Can TV One use this month's coverage of the Commonwealth Games to pump up its ratings for the rest of the year? That's the challenge facing the network after a [...]

What a ride'. John Hart's description of The World's Fastest Indian's record-breaking box office run also sums up his half-century in exhibition and distribution. Indian's a particularly fitting last hurrah [...]

Movies made in New Zealand were the local box office's salvation last year. Whereas cinema takings worldwide fell sharply in 2005, the New Zealand box office ended the year only [...]

SPADA fears Sky's takeover of Prime could jeopardise local production. 'If Sky gets [Commerce Commission] clearance to buy Prime it could mean less competition for New Zealand On Air funding,' [...]

WELLINGTON, New Zealand --New Zealand pubcaster TVNZ is dismissing fears that it is considering production cuts. 'We are and will remain the largest commissioner of locally produced programs from the [...]

I came into the business on a blockbuster being Goodbye Pork Pie. I'd done the big OE in the mid-70s and when I came back I was 28 and it [...]

New Zealand On Air's new television manager, Simon Phillips, comes to the agency with a 'clean slate'. 'Having worked in Australia it would be fair to say I had knowledge [...]

Feature film investment plummeted by two thirds to $86,082,226 in 2003/04 --but SPADA describes the $219.2 million drop as a 'blip' and not a long-term trend. Chief executive Penelope Borland [...]

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- The Telecom Auckland 37th International Film Festival kicks off today with five top-prize winners from this year's Festival de Cannes highlighting a two-week showcase of 150 [...]

The current box office slump (see 'Wide world ...' page 9) isn't stopping exhibitors in Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton from pumping millions of dollars into new screens. Village SkyCity Cinemas [...]

The Film Commission's combined sales and offers at the Cannes Film Festival market sales and offers nudged a record $10 million gross. 'We had a superb market--the best of my [...]

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- The New Zealand government will not recapitalize the funding initiative that spawned 'Whale Rider' and Roger Donaldson's new movie, 'The World's Fastest Indian,' Prime Minister Helen [...]