Theme: New Zealand Cinema

This is a listing of genre works made in New Zealand. Though a small country – an area larger than the UK but with a population of only around three million, reaching four million in 2003 and five million in 2020 – it has a reasonable cinematic output.

It is of a surprise that NZ did not make its first feature film until 1977 – the same year that Hollywood produced Star Wars (1977) – with Sleeping Dogs (1977). The success of such saw the creation of the government-backed New Zealand Film Commission, which oversaw the funding of local films. With films not part of a studio system, there was no necessary need for those produced to make their money back, leading to an odd and eclectic output of art films and dramas, cultural works and eccentric B movies.

The success story of the country was Peter Jackson’s emergence in the 1980s and move to award-winning filmmaker in the 1990s and then the huge success of his The Lord of the Rings trilogy. This in turn led to institution of the Weta Workshop, which has become one of the leading visual effects houses in the world. The Lord of the Rings and the generous tax subsidies that came with it, not to mention the country’s promotion of a clean green image, also led to the increased popularity of NZ as an international filming location.

NZ filmmakers to conduct multiple genre works include:- David Blyth, Niki Caro, Roger Donaldson, Gerard Johnstone, Peter Jackson, Jonathan King, Geoff Murphy, Sam Pillsbury, Gaylene Preston, Scott Reynolds, Glenn Standring, Ant Timpson, Vincent Ward and Taika Waititi.