New Zealand Film
Welcome to the New Zealand Film archive. Most New Zealand films have been made by small independent film-makers, often on a low budget and sometimes with sponsorship from the private sector or the NZ Film Commission. Only recently have international film companies used the New Zealand film industry as a source of feature films. However, the independent tradition of filmmaking in New Zealand dates back to the end of the 19th century, when film was first shot in New Zealand. The first feature film made in Godzone was "Hinemoa". It premiered on August 1, 1914 at the Lyric Theatre, Auckland.
The documentary film Cinema of Unease, by Sam Neill, presents an accessible history of film in New Zealand.
Most films are able to be accessed below, however some Films have been seperated into sub-categories, ie "New Zealand Documentaries", "Short Films" and "Peter Jackson Directs". The mother-lode can be prospected below.
Right: An artists rendition of Geoff Murphy's "Goodbye Pork Pie".
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ( Blu-ray ) (2012)
7.9/10
Director: Peter Jackson
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Elijah Wood, Hugo Weaving, Ian Holm, Ian McKell...
The first in a trilogy of films based on the enduring masterpiece The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey follows title charac... Read more
Desperate Remedies (1993)
6.9/10
Director: Peter Wells, Stewart Main
Starring: Jennifer Ward Lealand, Kevin Smith, Lisa Chappell
An excessive, hilarious romp through glorious sets and heated passions as Dorothea thinks she has found a man who will free her from the clutches of a... Read more
The Most Fun You Can Have Dying (2012)
6.4/10
Director: Kirstin Marcon
Starring: Roxane Mesquida, Matt Whelan, Pana Hema-Taylor
Michael has life pretty sweet. His girlfriend adores him, his best mate David is loyal to the end - and David's girlfriend doesn't mind a quick hook-u... Read more
The Changeover (2017)
5.4/10
Director: Stuart McKenzie, Miranda Harcourt
Starring: Melanie Lynskey, Timothy Spall, Lucy Lawless, Nicholas Galitzine
Based on the Carnegie Medal winning novel by Margeret Mahy. Sixteen year-old Laura Chant lives with her mother and four-year-old brother Jacko in a po... Read more
Daffodils (2019)
7.5/10
Director: David Stubbs
Starring: Rose McIver, George Mason
A bittersweet love story told through enchanting re-imaginings of popular and iconic New Zealand songs. Read more
A Soldier's Tale (1989)
6.3/10
Director: Larry Parr
Starring: Benoit Regent, Gabriel Byrne, Judge Reinhold, Maurice Garrel, Marianne Basler, P...
In wartime France a New Zealand soldier on a weekend leave meets a young French woman who is under suspicion of colluding with the occupying Germans t... Read more
Slow West (2015)
6.9/10
Director: John Maclean
Starring: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Michael Fassbender, Ben Mendelsohn, Madeleine Sami, Brooke Wil...
Set at the end of the 19th Century, 'Slow West' is an American western filtered through the eyes of European filmmaking. The story centres on 16-year-... Read more
Outrageous Fortune: Series 1 (2005)
8.5/10
Director: Various
Starring: Robyn Malcolm, Grant Bowler, Antony Starr, Antonia Prebble, Siobhan Marshall, Fr...
The Wests are a trashy crime-loving family trying to go straight after patriarch Wolfgang is locked up, yet again. Cheryl (Robyn Malcolm), determined... Read more
Bro' Town: Series 1 (2004)
Starring: Oscar Kightley, Shimpal Lelisi, Mario Goa, David Fane
New Zealand's first prime time animation series comes to DVD. Vale, Valea, Jeff da Maori, Sione and Mack are mates living in the fictional suburb of... Read more
Hidden (2005)
4.2/10
Director: Tim McLachlan
Starring: Luke Alexander, Kiel McNaughton, Hayley Halliday, Gavin Rutherford, Kerry Wakia
Shot in the Waitakere Ranges in winter of 2001, this digital kiwi chiller witnesses a group of camp counsellors playing a kind of hide and seek in the... Read more