Tom Hern was recently recognised as a future leader of the industry in SCREEN INTERNATIONAL’s special Cannes 2015 edition, heralded as one of the world’s top emerging producers.
Thirty-year-old Hern has produced three feature films. One, the micro-budget-whodunnit-thriller, I’M NOT HARRY JENSON, which was funded entirely through private investment and was released theatrically in its home country of New Zealand to critical acclaim in 2009. Two, the eerily provocative festival darling, EVERYTHING WE LOVED, which he made with writer/director Max Currie and co-producer, Luke Robinson in 2012/13. And three, THE DARK HORSE, the gritty-based-on-a-true-story-drama which recently became a box office smash (NZD$2M) and audience fave in NZ, before launching internationally at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the film received fantastic reviews and sold to all major territories around the world. THE DARK HORSE has gone on to win a number of awards at top film festivals (including Audience Awards at the Rotterdam, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC and the Palm Springs International Film Festivals), and will be released theatrically in the US by Broad Green Pictures on December 11th this year.
As lead producer on THE DARK HORSE, Hern won the Moa Award for “Best Film” at the 2014 New Zealand Film Awards.
Hern was a member of the prestigious international jury for the Berlin Film Festival (Generation Section) in 2015. Hern and his shingle, Four Knights Film, had two features slated for production in early 2016 – a reimagining of the 1981 Kiwi Classic action/comedy, GOODBYE PORK PIE, and a NZ/Irish co-production entitled, A LONG WAY HOME.
