Announcing The 2021 Awards Nominees!
This year there are 17 short films nominated across eight award categories. Blood and Gold directed by Yamin Tun and JUNE directed by Dwayne Cameron – both from New Zealand – are the most-nominated films, competing for four and three awards respectively. We’re an Oscar-accredited film festival, meaning the winners of the top two awards, Department of Post Best New Zealand Film and Best International Film, will become qualified to enter the Academy Awards®.
The 2021 nominees are:
Department of Post Best NZ Film
- Bree Greally, Lily Martin-Babin for Miro Wine (NZ)
- Kaitiaki Rodger and Cameron Broadhurst for Matua (NZ)
- Lissandra Leite and Isaac Bell for Space Invader (NZ)
Best International Film
- Alies Sluiter, Meng Xiong, Federica Belletti, William Littleton for Ayaan (Australia)
- Alireza Ghasemi, Raha Amirfazli for Solar Eclipse (France)
- Linhan Zhang and Clifford MiuPeza for The Last Ferry from Grass Island (USA)
DEGNZ Best Director
- Isaac Bell for Space Invader (NZ)
- Kaitiaki Rodger for Matua (NZ)
- Dwayne Cameron for JUNE (NZ)
Final Draft Best Screenplay
- Sam Gill for Fetch (NZ)
- Celia Jaspers for Milk (NZ)
- James Solomon for A Hole (NZ)
DEGNZ Best Editor
- Peter Roberts and Dwayne Cameron for JUNE (NZ)
- Brendon Chan for Blood and Gold (NZ)
- Joseph Grigg for Blue Lake (NZ)
Panavision Best Cinematographer
- Kieran Fowler for Giants (Australia)
- Ryan Alexander Lloyd for Blood and Gold (NZ)
- Dave Garbett for A Hole (NZ)
Toi Whakaari Best Actor
- Jodie Hillock for Blood and Gold (NZ)
- Joyena Sun for Blood and Gold (NZ)
- Sarah James for JUNE (NZ)
NZ on Air Best Music Video
- Logan Marshall for New Day – Gino October
- Ezra Simons and Gussie Larkin and Caleb Corlett for Landline – The Phoenix Foundation
- Vision Thing for Strangers – Ha, The Unclear
We received an incredible amount of short film submissions for this year’s festival which made the job of awarding a select few that more difficult. The winners will be announced at our awards night on Sunday 17 October at Rialto Cinemas Newmarket. Tickets will go on sale soon, pending a shift to Level 2.
