Carthew Neal and Emily Perkins will join Buffy McKinnon, representative for Madman Entertainment, to judge six short films selected by Lee Tamahori, at a public screening of New Zealand’s Best 2016 in Auckland on Saturday 23 July.

“The competition is now in its fifth year and we’re pleased to continue a diverse jury line-up for the New Zealand’s Best competition. Emily Perkins’ experience spans both the literary and film worlds with her great success as an author and her recent work in adapting Eleanor Catton’s novel for the big screen. Carthew Neal’s box office success with Hunt for the Wilderpeople makes him one of the most sought after producers in the industry. We look forward to their individual contributions to the judging task at hand in selecting New Zealand’s Best for 2016,” says NZIFF Director Bill Gosden.

The jury will select the winner of the $5,000 Madman Entertainment Jury Prize, while a $3,000 Wallace Friends of the Civic Award will be awarded by donors the Wallace Foundation and Wallace Media Ltd, to the film or contributor to a film they deem to merit special recognition. (The King, supported by Wallace Media, is not eligible for this prize.)

The winners will be announced at the closing night event of the Auckland leg of NZIFF. The six finalists are Spring Jam (dir: Ned Wenlock), Cradle (dir: Damon Duncan), Wait (dir: Yamin Tun), Shmeat (dir: Matasila Freshwater), Judgment Tavern (dir: Dean Hewison), and The King (dir: Ursula Grace Williams).

Guest selector and international filmmaker Lee Tamahori selected the six finalists from a shortlist of 12. Festival programmers Bill Gosden and Michael McDonnell viewed 81 entries to prepare the shortlist.

The New Zealand’s Best competition also includes an Audience award. Audiences in Auckland and Wellington will be asked to vote for their favourite, with the winner taking home 25% of the box office from the Festival screenings in the four main centres – in 2015 valued at $4,800.

About Emily Perkins

Emily Perkins is the author of four novels, including Novel About My Wife, and a collection of short stories, Not Her Real Name. Her short stories have appeared in various anthologies. She teaches creative writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington, and hosted TVNZ7’s book programme The Good Word. Emily worked with Alison Maclean to adapt Eleanor Catton’s The Rehearsal for the screen. The Rehearsal will have its world premiere at NZIFF 2016.

About Buffy McKinnon

Buffy has been an integral part of the Madman Theatrical Sales team for the last three years. Buffy has worked on the New Zealand theatrical releases including That Sugar Film, What We Do in The Shadows, The Dark Horse and The Deadlands. Most recently she was part of the highly successful distribution partnership between Madman and Piki Films on Hunt for the Wilderpeople, now the highest grossing New Zealand film of all time. Prior to Madman Buffy obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Film from the University of Canterbury.

About Carthew Neal

Carthew is a well-respected television, film and interactive producer, who formed Piki Films with filmmakers Taika Waititi and Leanne Saunders.  Neal has just produced Taika Waitit’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople and feature documentary, Tickled both premiered at Sundance 2016. Tickled screened at NZIFF Autumn Events 2016 and is now on release in the USA. 

NZ films at NZIFF are proudly supported by Resene.