News

Turning The Tide Director Takes Best Director Award at…

Following four nominations for Best Series, Best Cinematography, Best Editor and Best Director for Tauihu Media’s doco series Turning The Tide at the 2024 New Zealand Web Fest, director Magnolia Lowe took out the Best Director Factual gong.

This success follows Lowe’s previous nomination in 2020 for Best Director Factual for her doco series Water.

This latest accolade for Lowe and Turning The Tide follows the selection of Episode 2 in the Environmental Section of the Hawai’i International Film Festival 2024, held on the island of Oahu in October.

“We have always known Maggie to be a talented director,” said Tauihu principal and Turning The Tide producer Tui Ruwhiu. “But it’s great that industries acknowledges Maggie’s abilities as well.”

The DOPs whose cinematography was recognised through the nominations were Riki Reinfeld, Mike Potton, Jess Charton and Dr. Leigh Tait, while editor Amanda Mulderry received the Best Editor Factual nomination for her work.

ENDS

Turning The Tide Selected for NZ Web Fest and…

Tauihu’s doco shorts web series Turning the Tide, directed by Magnolia Lowe, has been  selected for NZ Web Fest 2024, while Ep. 2 of the series, Mātauranga-led Restoration has found a home at the Hawai’i International Film Festival 2024.

The six x 10-minute series highlights the work of researchers, kaitiaki and communities as they collaborate to improve the health of Aotearoa New Zealand’s coastal marine environment.

In Episode 2, Mātauranga-led Restoration, we travel to Ōhiwa Harbour to learn about the research and restoration of mussel beds being led by Kura Paul-Burke of the University of Waikato with doctoral and undergraduate research students, in a Mātauranga Māori-led approach.

Turning the Tide was a production for the Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge. It is is available on the Radio New Zealand website, RNZ YouTube and RNZ Facebook.

ENDS

Director Robyn Grace Boards BARA

New Zealand director Robyn Grace has boarded the Anna Nuria Francino penned feature film BARA, on the Tauihu Media slate.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Drama, Film and English Literature, Grace began working in theatre. In 2000, she got her first screen gig. Grace went on to become a first assistant director on a long line of films and TV shows — as well as a director (te reo soap Kōrero Mai, comedy Mean Mums, sci-fi show The Cul de Sac). In 2017 she wrote and directed a short film adapted from Marian Keyes story A Woman’s Right to Shoes. It was invited to almost 40 festivals. In 2020, Grace followed it with award-winning short Oranges and Lemons. Most recently, Grace has directed episodes on two series of the hit Netflix series Sweet Tooth, based on a post-apocalyptic comic.

Grace is repped by Sydney-base Creative Representation.

BARA tells the story of a mute recluse who, when her mother and sole witness to her existence ends up comatose, must brave the outside world to unlock her voice and save them both from a life unlived.

BARA was one of six scripts selected from 180 for the Black List New Zealand Project in 2021, which saw Francino mentored on the project by writers Kiwi Smith (Legally Blonde), Dan Abramovitz (BlacKkKlansman) and Phil Hay (Destroyer) in a Black List series of sessions led by screenwriter Scott Myers (K-9).

ENDS

Tauihu Producer Appointed to NZFC NZSPG Panel

Tauihu Media producer Tui Ruwhiu has been appointed to the New Zealand Film Commission’s New Zealand Screen Production Grant Panel, starting January 2018 for a two-year period.

The panel’s role is to assess all Screen Production Grant eligibility for domestic and international film and television projects.

Ruwhiu joins a mix of new and incumbent panelists who are all active in the New Zealand screen industry.

Grant Purpose

For local productions The Screen Production Grant of 40% of Qualifying New Zealand Production Expenditure (QNZPE) is intended:

• To build the sustainability, scale and  critical mass of the domestic film industry and support the development of New Zealand creatives.
• To provide cultural benefits to New Zealand by supporting the creation of New Zealand content and stories.

Eligible international productions can access a cash grant of 20% on QNZPE as an incentive to carry out production in New Zealand. A 5% Uplift is available for a smaller number of productions that are invited to apply and can demonstrate significant additional economic benefits to New Zealand.