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Get the most out of your Big Screen Symposium experience by catching up on all the fabulous work our speakers have created.

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Ainsley Gardiner


Waru (2017)

Eight Māori female directors contribute a sequence to this feature which unfolds around the tangi of a boy who died at the hands of his caregiver.

WATCH ON: Google Play, Apple, Microsoft, Rent or Buy on Youtube

The Breaker Upperers (2018)*

For the right price, BFFs Jen and Mel will ruthlessly end any romance. But when one grows a conscience, it threatens to derail their relationship.

WATCH ON: Rent on NEON, Google Play, Apple, Microsoft, Rent or Buy on Youtube

Boy (2010)*

Set on the east coast of New Zealand in 1984, Boy, an 11-year-old child and devout Michael Jackson fan, gets a chance to know his absentee criminal father, who has returned to find a bag of money he buried years ago.

WATCH ON: Google Play, Apple, NZ Film on Demand

*Producer Credits


André Nemec


High Fidelity (2020)*

Rob, a record-store owner in the rapidly gentrified Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, revisits past relationships through music and pop culture while trying to get over her one true love.

WATCH ON: NEON

Limetown (2019)*

15 years ago, 326 men, women, and children vanished from Limetown—a research facility in the heart of rural Tennessee. There were no witnesses, no clues, no survivors. For most of her adult life, investigative journalist Lia Haddock relentlessly sought answers to the question that no one seemed to be able to answer: What happened to the people of Limetown? This ten-part TV series, starring Jessica Biel, begins when Lia makes her first big breakthrough.

WATCH ON: Facebook Watch, twoupproductions.com/limetown

*Executive Producer Credits


Briar Grace-Smith


Waru (2017)

Eight Māori female directors contribute a sequence to this feature which unfolds around the tangi of a boy who died at the hands of his caregiver.

WATCH ON: Google Play, Apple, Microsoft, Rent or Buy on Youtube

Fresh Meat (2012)

When a mysterious stranger arrives in their isolated coastal town, 10-year-old twins, Kimi and Melody are forced apart. Kimi must find the strength to let go of what he loves the most.

WATCH ON: Google Play, Apple, Microsoft, Rent or Buy on Youtube

The Strength of Water (2009)

When a mysterious stranger arrives in their isolated coastal town, 10-year-old twins, Kimi and Melody are forced apart. Kimi must find the strength to let go of what he loves the most.

WATCH ON: Google Play, Apple, Microsoft, Rent or Buy on Youtube


David White


This Town (2020)

Five years after being acquitted for the murder of his family, Sean (David White) is finally ready to move on with life. But the bitter ex-cop (Robyn Malcolm) who led the investigation remains adamant that he’s guilty – and will stop at nothing to bring him down.

FIND A SCREENING: Flicks.co.nz

Meat (2017)

Meat is the modern story of the animals we eat, as told by the people who never get to say their piece – from the solitary hunter who believes everyone needs to be educated about their food, to an industrial pig farmer who argues that money isn’t his primary driver. MEAT is a revealing and thought-provoking documentary that does not tell you what to think – but shines a new light on the people, the land and everything that lies behind the supermarket shelves.

WATCH ON: NZ Film On Demand, Apple


Emma Slade


Come to Daddy (2020)

Norval Greenwood (Elijah Wood), a privileged man-child, arrives at the beautiful and remote coastal cabin of his estranged father (Martin Donovan, Tenet), who he hasn’t seen in 30 years. He quickly discovers that not only is dad a disapproving jerk, he also has a shady past that is rushing to catch up with him. Now, hundreds of miles from his cushy comfort zone, Norval must battle with demons both real and perceived in order to reconnect with a father he barely knows.

WATCH ON: Vimeo On Demand, Apple, Rent or Buy on YouTube


Hanelle Harris


Sis (2020)

A group of writers must create a comedy show with their racist boss. Meanwhile, their sketches come to life. From STIs to body swaps, their characters master life one sketch at a time.

WATCH ON: YouTube

Ahikāroa (2020)

Follow a crazy group of city based rangatahi, they’re young, kura kaupapa raised and dangerously onto it. Their world orbits around getting cash, cutting corners and charging their phones.

WATCH ON: Māori TV on Demand, TVNZ on Demand

Baby Mama’s Club (2017-2018)

When their elusive baby daddy skips town and ghosts them, an unlikely group of Polynesian women must overcome their differences to unite and hunt him down.

WATCH ON: TVNZ on Demand


Leanne Pooley


We Need to Talk About A.I. (2020)

In this feature documentary, the world’s top experts clash over whether the existential risk posed by A.I. is superseded by the promise of exponential gain. In an examination of a future we struggle to imagine and the scientific juggernaut that is taking us there; one thing is clear – We Need To Talk About A.I.

WATCH ON: Apple, Google Play

The Girl on the Bridge (2020)

22-year-old suicide survivor and mental health advocate Jazz Thornton tells her and her lost friend’s Jess’s story in this documentary portrait

FIND A SCREENING: Flicks.co.nz


Linda Niccol


Second Hand Wedding (2008)

Cheryl’s planning the perfect wedding, there’s just one problem – her mother. A small film with a big heart, Second Hand Wedding is a bittersweet dramatic comedy set in the present, in a time when TradeMe and E-bay threaten the primeval urge for a firsthand crack at the second-hand. Jill keeps the dream alive until she is forced to confront the habits of a lifetime and concede that no bargain is worth her daughter’s happiness.

WATCH ON: NZ Film on Demand


Maru Nihoniho


Metia Interactive

Metia Interactive is a game design and development studio based in Auckland, New Zealand and was founded in 2003 by managing director Maru Nihoniho. Metia’s first published title was Cube™ a puzzler game for the PlayStation Portable. Cube was published worldwide in 2007 by D3Publisher of America.

Metia was behind the development of SPARX a self-help e-therapy tool that teaches young people the key skills needed to help combat depression and anxiety.  It is available for free online through the Prime Minister’s Youth Mental Health Project.

Metia is an award-winning studio with our games receiving the United Nations World Summit Award for Cube in 2009, the United Nations World Summit Award for SPARX in 2011 and another international award for SPARX the  UNESCO Netexplo award in 2013.

SEE ALL THEIR WORK: metia.co.nz


Scott Ryan


Mr Inbetween (2018-)

Ray Shoesmith is a hitman for hire who makes a life out of balancing his criminal activities with his obligations to friends and family.

WATCH ON: NEON


Sebastián Lelio


A Fantastic Woman* (2017)

*Academy Award Winner, Best Foreign Language Film.
Marina, a transgender woman who works as a waitress and moonlights as a nightclub singer, is bowled over by the death of her older boyfriend.

WATCH ON: Buy or Rent on YouTube

Gloria Bell (2018)

Gloria (Julianne Moore) is a free-spirited divorcée who spends her days at a straight-laced office job and her nights on the dance floor, joyfully letting loose at clubs around Los Angeles.

WATCH ON: NEON, Google Play, iTunes or Microsoft

Disobedience (2017)

A woman returns to her Orthodox Jewish community that shunned her for her attraction to a female childhood friend. Once back, their passions reignite as they explore the boundaries of faith and sexuality.

WATCH ON: Google Play, Microsoft, Buy or Rent on YouTube

Gloria (2013)

A story set in Santiago and centered on Gloria, a free-spirited older woman, and the realities of her whirlwind relationship with a former naval officer whom she meets out in the clubs.

WATCH ON: Buy or Rent on YouTube


Sophie Henderson


Baby, Done (2020)

When Zoe (Rose Matafeo) and Tim (Matthew Lewis) find out they are having a baby, they resolve to not let parenthood change them. Tim runs towards being a dad, while Zoe runs away from being a mum. Terrified that her life won’t be her own anymore, Zoe is still determined to tick off a list of their wildest dreams before the baby arrives. Zoe’s increasing denial about her impending birth pushes her, and her relationship, to the limit.

WATCH TRAILER: YouTube
FIND A SCREENING: In Cinemas 22 October, go to Flicks.co.nz for screening times in your region

Fantail (2013)

Tania thinks she’s Maori. She works the graveyard shift at a petrol station saving money so she can take her brother Piwakawaka to Surfers Paradise to find their dad. When Pi goes away to pick kiwifruit, Tania is left by herself to plan for their trip. Stuck in a petrol station – getting security training and making sure her boss, Rog, doesn’t lose his job – Tania can’t rescue her brother from his new mates and from thinking he can fly.

WATCH ON: NZ Film On Demand, Buy or Rent on Youtube or Apple

The Justice of Bunny King (2021)

Bunny King (Essie Davis) is a mother of two with a sketchy past and a razor sharp tongue. While battling the system to reunite with her children, a confrontation leads her to take her niece Tonyah (Thomasin McKenzie) under her wing. With the world against her and Tonyah, Bunny’s battle has just begun.

READ MORE: Firefly Films