Ōtepoti / Dunedin
City Manager
Your Ōtepoti / Dunedin City Manager and is Miguel Weaver.
Miguel Weaver
Miguel has been film-making for 15 years and is well-known in Dunedin for his circus antics, theatre work, event management, and balloon-twisting.
He's made many short films, music videos, and promotional videos while squeezing in a little acting as well.
Notable credits include: I Survived a Zombie Holocaust, Ghost TV, Avenue Q, and Clowns vs Zombies.
Contacts
Email Miguel
Call Miguel - 027 694 2401
Heats
All heats will be screened online and there will also be a local watch party for the heats at Castle 1 - Otago University.
Please note that watch parties are trade screenings intended for cast and crew, and aren't public events. Some of the venues have limited numbers of seats so please consider how many people you bring along to the heats. Feel free to share the YouTube livestream online.
City Finals
Date: Saturday 3 September,2022
Time: Doors open at 6.30pm for a 7:00pm start.
Venue: Castle 1 - Otago University.
Directions: Map here - https://www.otago.ac.nz/maps/
Judges
Julie Edwards
Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Whare
A 1989 graduate of Toi Whakaari, Julie has spent her career working as an actor/director/vocal & acting coach throughout NZ. She is a familiar face to Dunedin audiences and has appeared in over 50 Fortune Theatre productions. She was awarded “50+shows” for services to NZ Theatre in 2013 and is a founding member of ‘The New Athenaeum Theatre’ in Dunedin.
Bex Rowe
For 19 years, Bex has worked on most film mediums of every budget scale under the roles of Production, Post Production, Publicity, Extras, Casting, Script Coordinating, Assistant Directing & Art Department. Some of the New Zealand and International productions Rebecca has been involved in include The Power of the Dog, Wellington Paranormal, King Kong, Avatar, 30 Day’s of Night, Spartacus TV Series, Z for Zachariah & Mission Impossible 6.
Lara Macgregor
Lara holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Directing from The National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney and studied acting in New York. She directed over 40 productions throughout America, Australia and NZ and currently works as an actor, director, dramaturg and performance coach in both theatre and film throughout the country. With acting credits that include productions on Netflix and Amazon, Lara has freelanced with multiple companies including Auckland Theatre Company, Circa Theatre, Centrepoint Theatre, South Pacific Pictures, The Actors’ Program and the University of Otago Theatre Studies.
Hayden Weal
Hayden J. Weal is a Kiwi director, writer and editor. After getting a front row seat to big-budget movie-making as a body double for Martin Freeman in The Hobbit trilogy and Daniel Radcliffe in Guns Akimbo, Hayden wrote and directed feature films Chronesthesia (2016) and DEAD (2020), co-written and starring Thomas Sainsbury. As an actor, Hayden has starred in some cute commercials like If It’s Not Gay, It’s Not Gay (Rainbow Youth pie-dropping ad) and TradeMe Jobs (the art exhibition guy), as well as feature films Getting Toasted (2019) and Loop Track (2022).
Dallas Synnott
Dallas Synnott is a Set Decorator and Production Designer, and a part of the flourishing film industry in Ōtepoti Dunedin. She has a background in TV Post-production and design agencies, but later branched out to add festival, music, and events projects to her CV, always with a conceptual and creative bent.
She has worked as Dunedin host and publicist for Whānau Mārama NZ International Film Festival for the last four years, and her favourite part (apart from watching many films) is hosting visiting filmmakers. As a former Boosted crowdfunding mentor, Dallas has helped many short films get made and loves to support upcoming and local talent.