Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland
The Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland region encompasses teams from across Auckland and surrounding communities. As New Zealand’s largest screen-production hub, it brings together a range of filmmakers and is known for its scale, energy, and creativity.
Bridget Fogarty
Bridget is thrilled to be joining the 48Hours team as the Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland Regional Manager. She is blown away by the filmmaking talent in Auckland and privileged to be able to support the epic feat of creating an original film over one weekend.
After a degree in Theatre and Film from Victoria University, Bridget has spent nearly thirty years working at the intersection of education, media, and youth development. She has written extensively for educational media throughout her career, creating content that informs and inspires young audiences. Her screen credits include developing Code Fun for TVNZ in 2020 and winning Best Short Film at the 2009 Show Me Shorts festival for Just Like the Others, directed by Jackie van Beek. She would love to help you in any way she can — so please don't hesitate to get in touch! Email Bridget.
Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland Regional Final
Saturday 19th September, 7:00pm
The Hollywood Avondale - 20 St George St, Avondale
Hosted by Jesse Griffin
The nominated finalist teams will receive 10 complimentary tickets to their regional final!
Accessibility info: Wheelchair access on side of venue, ramp access to stage.
Rating: M Offensive language, nudity, suicide, sexual references, drug references & content that may disturb
Regional Finalists
50/50 Bad Boy - Good Company
Busby Films - Plan B
Enormous Head - LLC EAR WORM.
v - Hiccupocalypse
Jake The Sound Guy - Earl & Muriel's Rural Burial
MO3PEPS ™ - The Dap
Permanently Confused - Twin Flame
Rabid Aunty Jean - Bomb Busters
Sealami - Nudity
Spanko - The Host
Standard Deviants - COMMIT
Taste of Kiwi - NAN!
The Good Bits - Fill your boots
The Horny Owls - RaveYard
Shortlisted Films
Bassline Creative - Insanitarium
BIGMOUTH PRODUCTIONS - ZIGGY AND SCOUT BLAST TO THE PAST
Choreographed Chaos - COFFEE
CRAKD - Lucky Pokie
H.O.C - Losing Patients.
I 48 THAT - Cat and Mouse: Portrait of a Pussy
Not Your Momma 2 point Oh - The Bonnet
On the Day Media - Read the room
S and M - Mr. Topsy Turvy
Someone Might - Life of Pie
Subaru Enthusiasts - MILKMAN
Willem Dafilm - The Least Funniest Man
Finalist Nominations
Best School Team
Dreadwood studio - Static
Margot meets Clyde - It Feels Like...
MINHAN'S MINIONS - REWIND
Silver Shadow - ENDLESS
Travis - Not again
Best Use of Drawing/Portrait
50/50 Bad Boy - Good Company
Permanently Confused - Twin Flame
S and M - Mr. Topsy Turvy
Sealami - Nudity
Spanko - The Host
Best Use of Interruption
Enormous Head LLC - EAR WORM.
Glowtime - Hiccupocalypse
Jake The Sound Guy - Earl & Muriel's Rural Burial
Rabid Aunty Jean - Bomb Busters
The Good Bits - Fill your boots
Best Use of Rumour
50/50 Bad Boy - Good Company
Busby Films - Plan B
CRAKD - Lucky Pokie
Enormous Head LLC - EAR WORM.
H.O.C - Losing Patients.
Best Use of Extreme Closeup / Macro shot
50/50 Bad Boy - Good Company
BIGMOUTH PRODUCTIONS - ZIGGY AND SCOUT BLAST TO THE PAST
MO3PEPS ™ - The Dap
Permanently Confused - Twin Flame
Taste of Kiwi - NAN!
Best Use of Genre
MO3PEPS ™ - The Dap
Permanently Confused - Twin Flame
Rabid Aunty Jean - Bomb Busters
Sealami - Nudity
Taste of Kiwi - NAN!
Regional Manager Award - Best Opening
Enormous Head LLC - EAR WORM.
Glowtime - Hiccupocalypse
Rabid Aunty Jean - Bomb Busters
Standard Deviants - COMMIT
The Good Bits - Fill your boots
Best Disqualified Film
AHS CINEREVELATIONS 2 - The Last Sweat
chips cheese cats etc - Birds of a feather
Jovial Entertainment - Colleagues
Philliyo Films - Jellybean
Piss off - Angry Monkey Films
Outstanding Female / Gender Diverse Filmmaker - Supported by WIFT
Busby Films - Soli Busby
Permanently Confused - Jade Lewis
Sealami - Alice Gatland
Spanko - Sofi Issak-Zade
The Horny Owls - Floriane Caillot
Best Original Score/Song
Enormous Head LLC - EAR WORM.
Lazy Bones - The Floor Above
MO3PEPS ™ - The Dap
Permanently Confused - Twin Flame
Sealami - Nudity
Best Sound Design
Jake The Sound Guy - Earl & Muriel's Rural Burial
Rabid Aunty Jean - Bomb Busters
Spanko - The Host
Taste of Kiwi - NAN!
Willem Dafilm - The Least Funniest Man
Best Editing
Busby Films - Plan B
Rabid Aunty Jean - Bomb Busters
Sealami - Nudity
Spanko - The Host
The Good Bits - Fill your boots
Best Animation
Sealami - Nudity
Silver Shadow - Endless
The Backup Plan - Where's Mama Turtle?
Unique Art - Almost Wanted
Vaine Kuki - Sleeping Shadow Warriors
Best Production Design
Busby Films - Plan B
Jake The Sound Guy - Earl & Muriel's Rural Burial
RaveYard - The Horny Owls
Spanko - The Host
The Good Bits - Fill your boots
Incredibly Strange Award
BoddyBag - Damsel in this Dress
Glowtime - Hiccupocalypse
Jelly and the witch. - POP UP
Secret Desert - The Luxonyssey
The Horny Owls - Raveyard
Best Cinematography
Glowtime - Hiccupocalypse
Permanently Confused - Twin Flame
Spanko - The Host
The Good Bits - Fill your boots
The Horny Owls - Raveyard
Best Script
Busby Films - Plan B
Glowtime - Hiccupocalypse
Permanently Confused - Twin Flame
Sealami - Nudity
Taste of Kiwi - NAN!
Best Performer(s)
Busby Films - Lazarus Busby, Jairah Lemanu, Pipo Vili Tevaga.
Jake The Sound Guy - Oliver Persson
Rabid Aunty Jean - Chelsea McEwan Millar & Hamish Parkinson
Standard Deviants - Liv Parker
Taste of Kiwi - Yvette Parson
Best Director
Busby Films - Plan B
Glowtime - Hiccupocalypse
Permanently Confused - Twin Flame
Sealami - Nudity
Taste of Kiwi - NAN!
Judges
Jesse Griffin
Jesse Griffin is an award-winning director, writer, actor and comedian based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Trained in physical theatre in Melbourne, he built his career on devising and improvisation, first with comedy trio The 4 Noels, then with his country music character Wilson Dixon, who he brought to BBC Radio as a commissioned series. His many honours include the Fred Award, a Moosehead Award (Melbourne International Comedy Festival), a Spirit of the Fringe Award at Edinburgh, and a NZ Comedy Guild Award for Comedy Innovation for his one-man show Centaur.
Jesse directed and wrote the acclaimed Educators (TVNZ/Netflix, 2018–2025), wrote and directed on The Office (Australia) for Amazon, and co-created the Comedy For Cure Kids specials with Flight of the Conchords and Taika Waititi. He's also directed Talkback and Last at 11 for TVNZ, was a head writer on 7 Days, and wrote and directed the short film Lucky Luke (2025). As an actor he's appeared in 800 Words, Golden, Time Bandits, Nude Tuesday, and the upcoming Klara and the Sun.
Charlie McClellan
Charlie McClellan is an Auckland-based visual effects professional and filmmaker with over 35 years of experience in the film and TV industry. Recent credits include a return to the Starz series Spartacus as the Visual Effects Supervisor for Spartacus: The House of Ashur, as well as the Warner Bros Entertainment 2023 hit horror film Evil Dead Rise. Other credits include; TV series Spartacus S1 -3 and Gods of the Arena, the horror film 30 Days of Night, Carnival Row and Marco Polo. Charlie was an Executive Producer of the 2016 hit feature film Hunt for the Wilderpeople, the most successful Kiwi feature of all time at the NZ/Australian the box office.
Charlie wrote and directed the short film Room Tone which played in festivals in the early 2000s, was called “sly and witty” by Kevin Thomas of the LA Times and can be found on YouTube. Prior to emigrating to New Zealand in 1995, Charlie McClellan was post production executive at Miramax Films in New York, where he worked with the filmmakers of the films Clerks, Heavenly Creatures, Farewell My Concubine, The Snapper, The Innocent, Wide-Eyed and Legless and Hour of the Pig.
Tamar Münch
Tamar Münch is an entertainment publicist with three decades of experience working in both New Zealand and Australia. Now operating independently as a freelancer, she previously worked as a publicist in-house across both production companies and broadcasters.
Tamar is the Founder and Company Director of The Public Good, a boutique Auckland-based communications consultancy specialising in entertainment & arts publicity and media communications. As New Zealand’s most-experienced Unit Publicist, Tamar has worked across literally hundreds of screen productions, both domestic and international. She’s also managed release PR campaigns for a wide variety of film and television productions, collaborating with filmmakers, distributors, streaming platforms and broadcasters to connect their projects with audiences. Additionally, her expertise includes social media strategy and execution, impact campaigns, creative services delivery, personal brand management, media training and crisis communications.
Tamar is regular film and television reviewer for RNZ’s Nine to Noon and is a Level 2 certified Iyengar Yoga teacher.
Terri Kilmartin
Terri Kilmartin is an Auckland based 1st Assistant Director with 30 years experience in the film industry. Working across all mediums of Commercials, Television Drama and Feature Films her credits include Perfect Strangers (2003), The Wilds (2020), One Of Us IS Lying (2022), Sweet Tooth (2021), Disney's Zombies 4 & 5 (2025 & 2027) amongst others. Terri fondly remembers participating in the 48Hours Film competition over twenty years ago and is excited to come full circle and join the judging panel this year.
Marianne Infante
Marianne Infante is a Kapampángan-Filipino multidisciplinary creative powerhouse and mentor. She is the Executive Director of PAT (Proudly Asian Theatre) where she began her producing career in 2017 and later co-founded her own creative company TKC (Te & Kuya Collaborative) where she co-produced ‘Mekeni’ (Someday Stories) and launched her Filipino acting course. In 2023-2024. Marianne mentored 25 of Aotearoa’s future theatre producers AKL, WLG and CHC through Producers In Training ‘PIT’ (funded by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage).
Karl Sölve Steven
Karl Sölve Steven is an award-winning New Zealand/Swedish composer. His recent work includes Moss & Freud (dir. James Lucas, Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2025) and Mārama (dir. Taratoa Stappard, Official Selection TIFF 2025), the latter scored alongside Rob Thorne. His other credits include Ant Timpson's Bookworm (starring Elijah Wood, Nell Fisher and Michael Smiley) and Uproar (starring Julian Dennison, Rhys Darby and Minnie Driver, dir. Hamish Bennett and Paul Middleditch). He also scored Never Look Away with Jason Smith, directed by Lucy Lawless, which screened in the World Documentary Competition at Sundance and SXSW in 2024. That score won Best Original Music in a Feature Film at the 2024 APRA Screen Music Awards.
Kent Belcher
Kent Belcher is an Auckland-based Director and Director of Photography with over two decades of experience behind the lens. His work spans a wide range of short films, features, and commercial projects. Most recently, Kent made his feature directorial debut with the documentary Alien Weaponry: Kua Tupu Te Ara, which earned a prestigious international premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. Knowing exactly what it takes to pull a film together under pressure, he is stoked to be on the judging panel and see what this year's Vista Foundation 48Hours teams deliver.
Rob Mokaraka
Rob Mokaraka (Ngāpuhi, Ngāi Tūhoe) is an actor and writer for stage and screen. He won the Best Newcomer Chapman Tripp acting award for his 2001 play Have Car, Will Travel, and went on to co-write the acclaimed stage play Strange Resting Places with Paolo Rotondo, a story of Māori and Italian bonds during World War II that toured for over nine years and was later adapted into the television series Atamira. His screen credits include the Māori Battalion film Tama Tu and the television series The Dead Lands.In 2009, Rob's battle with undiagnosed depression led to a life-altering moment when he provoked police and was shot, an experience he later turned into the one-man play and documentary Shot Bro, which he has since taken around Aotearoa. The experience marked the beginning of his journey toward healing, resilience and manaakitanga (care and support).
Determined to break the stigma surrounding mental health, Rob now dedicates his life to fostering mātauranga (knowledge) and raising awareness about well-being, suicide prevention and postvention care. His mission is to spread aroha (love) and hope while providing practical tools to support suicide prevention, empowering whānau (families) and hapori (communities) so no one faces mental health struggles alone, connecting them, where needed, to organisations and mental health professionals.
Graeme Tuckett
Graeme is a Wellington based location scout, writer and film maker. He reviews films for the Post, Christchurch Press, Waikato Times and Sunday Star Times newspapers, and contributes to NZ On Screen, RNZ and Radio Active.FM. He owns and operates the Crew Auckland and Crew Wellington websites, is a guest tutor at Victoria University's film programme, and is the writer and director of several documentaries.
Zoë McIntosh
Zoë McIntosh is an award-winning New Zealand filmmaker whose work spans feature documentaries, narrative shorts, and commercial campaigns.Her feature documentary Stylebender, charting the rise of UFC champion Israel Adesanya, premiered at Tribeca Film Festival, where it received a Best Documentary nomination and Zoë a nomination for Best New Director. Her dramatic short The World in Your Window won Best International Short Film at seven major A-list festivals and qualified for Academy Award consideration.
Her YWCA campaign addressing equal pay won the Cannes Lions Young Director Award. Zoë currently has two films in development: a feature documentary on adventurer Miriam Lancewood, and a psychological thriller set in the South Island.Beyond her directing work, she is a dedicated mentor and consultant to emerging filmmakers. Zoë draws inspiration from spontaneous road trips, conversations with strangers, unexpected detours, and a restless appetite for learning.