Across Aotearoa
The Across Aotearoa region brings together teams from communities throughout New Zealand and around the world outside Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
Representing a wide range of locations, experiences and voices. These teams compete together in one regional final that celebrates filmmaking talent from across Aotearoa and overseas.
Across Aotearoa Regional Guidelines
Please download and read the regional guidelines from the various Screen Offices for filming across Aotearoa out of the 3 main centres.
Dean Hewison
I first entered 48HOURS in 2004, and have taken part nearly every year since then - if not competing, then as a judge.
My team has won the Wellington final three times, and the National final twice (with "The Sleeping Plot" and "Good Girl").
I'm stoked to help bring 48HOURS across Aotearoa this year, and am excited to see what creative madness comes out of this year's competition.
A long-time 48Hours participant, Dean now brings his passion and expertise to the role of ‘Across Aotearoa’ Manager in 2026, supporting the next wave of regional filmmakers.
Email Dean
Across Aotearoa Regional Winner
Lukewarm Lunch - Headspace
Across Aotearoa Runner Up
Peaked in Film School - Ruin
Across Aotearoa Finalists
Bus of the Undead - The Paper Run
Filmanui - The Exhibit
Free Cinematic LUTS - A Man of Great Taste
Girls in the Mirror - Lost Cat
Goat Films - Take Me Down
Hot Lunch - Revenge on the Number 1 Rule
Lukewarm Lunch - Headspace
Midnight Sunburn - Chrono-Narcos
Peaked in Film School - Ruin
Sandpit - The Door
Stabcam - Exit Strategy
Terrible Ideas - Snuffed Out
The Bourgeoisie - Family Kids
The Great Lake Film Society - S.Q.R.T.
The Russell Crew - Jackson
Across Aotearoa Shortlist
Anubis House - Peter Ingram & the Roach Smoker
Defy - Hard Case
From the Spoon Films - Give Yourself Permission
KS Productions - Creepy Tim
Lujoja - Careless Burns
Ministry of Movies - Best Friends
Muse Crew - Level 9
Naycol Squiggles - Mr Williams vs the Mafia
Pakaru Pānui - The Hit List
RS Productions - Magnum Opus
The Dunnos - Detention
Across Aotearoa Nominations
Best School Team
Winner - The Bourgeoisie - Family Kids
Nominees:
KS Productions - Creepy Tim
Naycol Squiggles - Mr. Williams Vs. The Mafia
The Dunnos - Detention
Naycol TimTams - Case Gone Cold
Best Use of Drawing/Portrait
Winner - Mayodaze - The Cycle of Pretense
Nominees:
Free Cinematic LUTS - A man of great taste
Lukewarm Lunch - Headspace
Sandpit - The Door
Filmanui - The Exhibit
Best Use of Interruption
Winner - Lukewarm Lunch - Headspace
Nominees:
Free Cinematic LUTS - A man of great taste
Peaked in Film School - Ruin
Prestige Worldwide - One Stroke
Once upon a Pixel - The Greatest Man Never Known
Best Use of Rumour
Winner - Comica Pictures - THE METHOD
Nominees:
Free Cinematic LUTS - A man of great taste
Lukewarm Lunch - Headspace
SLOW Media - Mummy's Prado
STABCAM - Exit Strategy
Best Use of Extreme Closeup / Macro shot
Winner - Filmanui - The Exhibit
Nominees:
Girl in the Mirror - Lost Cat
Peaked in Film School - Ruin
DEFY - HARD CASE
RS Productions - Magnum Opus
Best Use of Genre
Winner - Naycol Squiggles - Mr. Williams Vs. The Mafia
Nominees:
Girl in the Mirror - Lost Cat
Lukewarm Lunch - Headspace
Peaked in Film School - Ruin
STABCAM - Exit Strategy
Regional Manager Award - Jaw Dropping Moment
Winner - KS Productions - Creepy Tim
Nominees:
RS Productions - Magnum Opus
The Dunnos - Detention
Naycol Squiggles - Mr. Williams Vs. The Mafia
The Bourgeoisie - Family Kids
Best Disqualified Film
Winner - Over and Out - The Night of the Weapon: The Game
Nominees:
Coolville - The Nothingness
Little Ogstiens - The Hatman
Tub Time Studios - That Time I Got On a Gameshow and Found Out The Host Was Like a Demon Or Something
NPGHS 1 - Daddy Issues
Outstanding Female / Gender Diverse Filmmaker - Supported by WIFT
Winner - Amalia Remus- Peaked in Film School
Nominees:
Jessica Walker - Girl in the Mirror
Abby Kingi - Filmanui
Georgia Wales - Midnight Sunburn
Ché Crawford - The Immortal Think Tank
Best Original Score/Song
Winner - RS Productions - Magnum Opus
Nominees:
Lukewarm Lunch - Headspace
Peaked in Film School - Ruin
Quentin Footantino - Tempo
Team Solita - Small Town
Best Sound Design
Winner - Bus of the Undead - The Paper Run
Nominees:
STABCAM - Exit Strategy
Naycol Squiggles - Mr. Williams Vs. The Mafia
The Bourgeoisie - Family Kids
The Great Lake Film Society - S.Q.R.T.
Best Editing
Winner - Hot Lunch - Revenge On The Number 1 Rule
DEFY - HARD CASE
Naycol Squiggles - Mr. Williams Vs. The Mafia
Mayodaze - The Cycle of Pretense
Unhinged Flops - Shrok
Best Animation
Winner - The Immortal Think Tank - Bloom
Aura Farmers - Storage steve
Discombobulated Pistachios - Out of Control
Tuatara Sandwiches - Theo and Lola
The Handsome Knights - A Hundred Ways to Kill a Baby
Best Production Design
Winner - The Great Lake Film Society - S.Q.R.T.
Nominees:
Bus of the Undead - The Paper Run
RS Productions - Magnum Opus
The Dunnos - Detention
Midnight Sunburn - Chrono-Narcos
Incredibly Strange Award
Winner - The Dunnos - Detention
Nominees:
Pink Fraud - E.(xtra) T.(errible)
PEAKE PRODUCTIONS - The Summoning
Unhinged Flops - Shrok
Reelghost - The Good Wife
Best Cinematography
Winner - Free Cinematic LUTS - A man of great taste
Nominees:
Midnight Sunburn - Chrono-Narcos
Peaked in Film School - Ruin
Sandpit - The Door
Comica Pictures - THE METHOD
Best Script
Winner - The Russell Crew - Jackson
Free Cinematic LUTS - A man of great taste
Goat Films - Take Me Down
Pakaru Pānui - The Hit List
The Great Lake Film Society - S.Q.R.T.
Best Performer
Winner - Te Ao o Hinepehinga - Lukewarm Lunch
Nominees:
David Oakley - Free Cinematic LUTS
Blair Annison-Chisholme - Midnight Sunburn
Amalia Remus - Peaked in Film School
Anna Langford - STABCAM
Best Director
Winner - Lukewarm Lunch - Headspace
Nominees"
Free Cinematic LUTS - A man of great taste
Midnight Sunburn (need leads name) - Chrono-Narcos
Peaked in Film School - Ruin
The Great Lake Film Society - S.Q.R.T.
Judges
Anna Middleton
Originally trained in ballet and contemporary dance, Anna Middleton toured internationally as a singer and entertainer before pivoting to storytelling through the lens of a camera. A graduate of the New Zealand Broadcasting School in 2003, Anna had the privilege of building her early career working on TVCs, music videos, short films, and features. In 2007, she co-founded Flying Saucer Films, a boutique video and stills production company, crafting compelling content for tourism, govt, and corporate clients.
She served as a Board Member of the Visual Effects Professionals Guild (VFXG) and worked as a Department Manager at Wētā FX, where she spent a decade recruiting and mentoring exceptional visual effects talent from around the motu. Passionate about nurturing our next-gen creatives, Anna appreciates artistic flair, technical innovation, and human-centred storytelling.
Robin Murphy
Robin has worked in the New Zealand film industry as a freelancer for 45 years on both local and international productions. She’s crewed on feature films, television drama, TVC’s and online content ranging from costume for the 1981 kiwi classic feature film Goodbye Pork Pie, through to supervising location manager and asst director for The Lord Of The Rings trilogy and King Kong. She’s also location managed TV shows such as Outrageous Fortune, Power Rangers, One Of Us Is Lying, The Gone, and After The Party.
Over the past 25 years, in-between paid gigs, Robin has also produced nine short films, three web series and most recently, the NZ feature films Births, Deaths and Marriages, Lowdown Dirty Criminals and PUNCH.
Having returned to her home base in Hawkes Bay in 2017, Robin still travels regularly around Aotearoa for freelance film work on local and international productions, and enjoys spending time working with emerging filmmakers on their journey from script to screen.
Amie Richardson
An award-winning journalist for newspapers and magazines, Amie first joined the media industry as a reporter for the NZ Herald and Sunday Star-Times. Her TV work has included various roles from development through to research, script writing, and associate producing in documentaries, docu-drama, tele features, short films, and factual series.
In 2010 she became a board member of Short Film Otago, producing, script editing, and executive producing various funded short films. Amie currently works for Save the Children as Communications, Media and Campaigns Director.
Tom Scott-Toft
Tom Scott-Toft is an award-winning Sound Designer, Editor, and Mixer, with over 15 years experience. He began his career in sound in Auckland but a move to Wellington in 2011 opened the door to film and TV, with 10 years spent working out of Park Road Post.
Some highlights have been Peter Jackson’s 'They Shall Not Grow Old’, and Lisa Reihana’s 2017 Venice Biennale featured art installation, ‘In Pursuit of Venus [Infected]’. Recent work includes ‘The House Within’, Taika Waititi’s ‘Time Bandits’ series, and ‘Koka’. Now based in Oamaru, Tom freelances on both large and small projects.
Cathasaigh Ó Fiannachta
Cathasaigh Ó Fiannachta is a nonbinary writer and producer based in Kēkerengū, Aotearoa, with more than 15 years of experience developing film and television projects for local and international audiences.
An alumnus of the United World College of South East Asia, Auckland University, and the script department of Shortland Street, Cathasaigh wrote and associate-produced the New Zealand Film Commission-funded shorts Blankets and Dancers, co-wrote Born To Dance (TIFF and Berlinale 2015), and was selected for the 2014 NZFC Ash vs Evil Dead writers internship. They received the 2018 Women in Film & Television "Woman To Watch" Award and the 2019 Vero Beach Wine & Film Festival "Visionary Award" for their directorial debut, Hang Time.
Cathasaigh founded Notwhoreious Games and, in 2024, co-founded genre script development venture Freak Development with writer Andrew Todd. Their latest producing credit, Tim Hamilton's debut feature POP, is set for release later this year.
Paula Whetu Jones
Paula Whetu Jones is a writer-director with 15 years in film, following a decade as a social issue documentary maker exploring communities most people never see — women in gangs, transgender community workers, boot camps, street kids. She wrote and directed two festival short films and two TV comedy series, one based on her time in the spinal unit, co-wrote/co-directed an evangelical drama for Warner's NZ and the feature films WHINA and Waru. She continued making documentaries, the latest one, The Doctor's Wife, is about a retired NZ paediatric cardiac surgeon and his wife, and their work in Palestine. She is currently developing a number of drama and doco projects.
Victoria Boult
Victoria Boult (Ngāi Tahu) is an indigenous 28-year-old writer and director. She is best known for her debut television series n00b (Netflix, Canal +), which she wrote and co-directed. n00b was selected for Berlinale and nominated for Best Short Form Series at Canneseries.
Victoria has written for Happiness (HBO Max), A Remarkable Place To Die (ZDF, NINE) and Ahikāroa (Whakaata Māori). Victoria also directed Episode 4 of A Remarkable Place To Die S2.
Victoria's debut short film 'Invisible Dragons' won Best Indigenous Short at the 2025 Bend Film Festival, and was selected for HIFF, SBIFF and NFF.
Miguel Weaver
Miguel Weaver is a former 48 Hours Regional Manager and has been film-making for 19 years.
Well-known in Dunedin for his circus antics, theatre work, event management, and balloon-twisting, he has made a great many short films, music videos, and promotional videos, while squeezing in a little acting as well.
Francesca Carney
Francesca Carney is a Wellington-based producer with over 20 years' experience in the NZ Film and TV industry. She worked at the New Zealand Film Commission as coordinator for the Talent Development team, heavily involved in the Fresh Shorts funding and development labs. She is co-director of Suite Habana Productions with her husband and collaborator Ben Powdrell, most recently co-producing NZOA-funded web series Bloke of the Apocalypse. She competed in the 48 Hours Film Competition in the early 2000's and was last year's Regional Manager for Across Aotearoa. Fran is excited to watch this year's collection of shorts from across the regions.
Jonathan Hawke
Jonathan likes to proudly reminisce that his team was a finalist in the very first 48Hours in 2002. Or was it 2003? Did it even happen? Mostly, he prefers to go with the vibe over the detail.
Other film career highlights include being replicated over 100 times as an elf in Peter Jackson’s Fellowship of The Twin Kings, being solicited by Keifer Sutherland (for being a very handsome man) on the set of The River Queen and getting fired as PA to a quintessential Hollywood-brat producer from B-grade film Without a Paddle.
Since the noughties he has been on the internet, creating immersive digital experiences. He has worked at digital production shops Unit9 (https://www.unit9.com/) and Resn) and currently with Gladeye and HyperCinema, pioneering hyper personalised storytelling with the help of some friendly humans and machines.
Find him on Link-o-rama.