The New Zealand Film Commission’s Annual Report 2018/19 was tabled in Parliament on 3 December.
Releasing the report NZFC Chair Kerry Prendergast said, “For me, one of the most satisfying parts of the last year has been seeing the introduction of a broad range of new funding programmes offering support to filmmakers whose voices have been historically under-represented. These have included production financing for women-led films (125 Fund), and films with Māori filmmakers in key creative roles (Te Rautaki Feature Film Initiative) as well as for films in Te Reo Māori (He Pounamu). $5.8M of production financing has been invested into these programmes with a further $290,000 invested into four new development funds.”
In 2018-19, the NZFC worked to increase the participation and retention of women in the screen industry and these efforts have led to 57% of the films financed in the year having women directors, with 60% of key creatives on these films also women. 60% of talent development grants in the period were given to women.
In the period fourteen feature films received production financing to the value of $16.1M and fifteen feature films, with total budgets of $45.7M went into production. These films provided jobs for 825 New Zealanders. 21% of these films had Māori filmmakers in at least two out of three key creative roles.
There was a 170% increase in applications for development and production funding in 2018-19, and 43% more projects were approved for funding than in the previous year.
Ten NZFC-financed feature films were screened at seven A-list film festivals and a further 33 films were showcased at 64 other international festivals or events.
The NZSPG triggered a total spend of $621M across 30 productions which chose New Zealand as their base.
You can read the New Zealand Film Commission's 2018-19 Annual Report here.