Aotearoa’s screen sectors both big and small came together to celebrate the country’s achievements in cinema and television at the 2025 New Zealand Screen Awards | Ngā Taonga Whakaata o Aotearoa.
It was a special night, not just for championing this year’s deserving winners, but to recognise screen icons, says Flicks editor and NZSA judge Steve Newall. “Particularly special and bittersweet was Lee Tamahori’s Best Director win for The Convert, coming just weeks after the sad news of his passing. Longtime collaborator Robin Scholes honoured Lee in a moving acceptance speech, one that also revealed the win was made known to Lee before he died—making the moment even more moving as a celebration we could share with him.”
Oscar Kightley correctly referenced Sir Sam Neill’s great turn as Satan in Omen III (among many other roles) and his skill at a turn to camera when introducing the acting great as the recipient of this year’s Screen Legend award. “When Neill came to the mic it was with typical dry wit, a couple of swears, some amazement at a 53-year career, and a strong sense of being chuffed in a room full of the film industry,” Newall says. “He was not alone in sharing his love for the creative community, but it was delivered in heartwarming fashion by this Aotearoa alltimer.”
Read on to find out all of this year’s big winners and where to watch them, as well as the full list of film and TV award winners.
Ka Whawhai Tonu – Struggle Without End
Director Michael Jonathan’s feature debut took home New Zealand Film Commission’s Best Feature Film as well as Images and Sound’s Best Original Score. Set during a pivotal 1864 battle in the country’s first land wars, this searing siege film tells the story of unity between two rangatahi on either side of a conflict that sees Māori fighting impossible odds against colonial forces. During the film’s theatrical release, Johnathan shared with Flicks his journey of bringing Ka Whawhai Tonu to life—and it all started with 1983 classic Utu.
The Convert
The late, great Lee Tamahori was awarded Directors and Editors Guild of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Best Director for his historical thriller set during The Musket Wars and starring Guy Pearce as a lay preacher who finds himself in 1830s Aotearoa caught in the middle of two warring iwi. The most awarded film of the night, The Convert also took home Images and Sound’s Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design and Best Makeup Design. We were fortunate enough to talk to Tamahori about the film, as well as his undisputed classic Once Were Warriors.
The Rule of Jenny Pen
Filmmaker James Ashcroft scored New Zealand Writers Guild’s Best Script for his adaptation of Owen Marshall’s short story of a curmudgeon stuck in a rest home who becomes the target of a maniacal resident. Geoffrey Rush plays said curmudgeon opposite John Lithgow as said maniac (who won Best Actor for reminding us how good he is at being evil) and George Henare as a fellow victim (who won Best Supporting Actor for his equally potent performance). The film also won Screen Music & Sound Guild of New Zealand’s Best Contribution to a Soundtrack.
Tinā
This year’s local box office behemoth earned its two big stars, Anapela Polata’ivao and Antonia Eaton, Equity New Zealand’s Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively. The story centres on a teacher (Polata’ivao) who, after losing her daughter to the Christchurch earthquakes, finds a new drive subbing at an elite private school teaching children in desperate need of guidance, inspiration, and love. It’s a tribute piece to all our mothers, filmmaker Miki Magasiva told us at the start of the year.
Never Look Away
Winning New Zealand Film Commission’s Best Documentary, screen icon Lucy Lawless’s directorial debut tells the story of Kiwi CNN combat camerawoman Margaret Moth. If you were around a television in the ‘90s, chances are you’ve seen her work, and as this film explores, her esoteric personality fed into her drive to capture the most pressing conflicts in the world’s most extreme locations. If you ask us, it joins the ranks of other great films about extreme camerapeople.
The Gone: Season 2
The second season of the Te Aroha-shot missing person mystery series was crowned New Zealand On Air’s Best Drama Series and Screen Auckland’s Best Director (Drama Series). The story kicks off where the first season ended, with Irish detective Theo Richter and Māori cop Diana Huia teaming up again to find journalist Aileen Ryan who vanished when looking into the town’s elusive serial killer.
Motuhaketanga
This two-parter, which won New Zealand On Air’s Best Documentary (Series) and Best Director (Documentary/Factual Series), follows three wāhine Māori as they embark on a journey of transformation. Leaving prison and starting anew, the women begin the raw process of rebuilding their lives, their identities, and their futures.
Vince
This year’s Best Comedy Programme stars Jono Pryor as a high-profile Breakfast TV presenter who unknowingly drops trou at a children’s cancer ward live on air. Aided by a supporting cast of screen vets—Natalie Medlock, Chelsie Preston Crayford, Laura Daniel—the show gleefully mines comedy from a hurtling asteroid of a PR nightmare.
Homesteads: Season 2
Te Māngai Pāho’s Best Māori Programme went to the second season of the factual series exploring the cultural significance of homesteads through the stories of the ahi kā that occupy them. This season features Māori weavers Dame Rangimarie and Diggeress Te Kanawa, 80-year-old great-grandmother Lucy Dora, and one of the first houses in the Ngā Motu area.
Ruamata: It’s More Than Hockey – Part 2
2024’s Ruamata: It’s More Than Hockey became the first documentary ever to be entirely in Te Reo Māori. Now Part Two has the honour of being Te Māngai Pāho’s Best Reo Māori Programme for 2025. The story builds upon last year’s journey, which saw the country’s first Māori immersion school rise to the top of hockey in Aotearoa, with exclusive insight into the kaupapa Māori hockey team’s rich history.
Double Parked: Season 2
Antonia Prebble won Best Actress in a Series starring alongside Madeleine Sami as a couple living life after a botched home insemination job leaves both women pregnant. Kura Forrester co-stars in a Best Supporting Actress-winning performance as their housemate who, alongside best-friend-sperm-donor Johnny (Dominic Ona Ariki), helps navigate the heavenly hellscape of raising newborns in their chosen family.
Soljans Estate Winery Best Entertainment Programme – Taskmaster NZ: Season 5
Best Actor in a Series – Stephen Lovatt (Shortland Street)
Best Supporting Actor in a Series – Peter Hambleton (Happiness)
Best Presenter: Entertainment – Brynley Stent & Kura Forrester (Bryn & Ku’s Singles Club)
Best Director: Documentary Feature – The Haka Party Incident
Best Editing: Documentary / Factual – Series – Choir Games
Best Editing: Documentary / Factual – Feature – Maurice and I
Directors and Editors Guild of Aotearoa New Zealand Best Editing: Drama – Feature – Joika
Images and Sound Best Cinematography: Drama Series – A Remarkable Place to Die
Best Camerawork: Documentary / Factual – Series – Live and Let Dai
Best Camerawork: Documentary / Factual – Feature – Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao E Rua – Two Worlds
Best Contribution to a Soundtrack: Series – Secrets at Red Rock
Best Post Production Design – Series – Time Bandits
Best Post Production Design – Feature – Ash
Best Production Design – Series – Under the Vines: Season 3
Best Costume Design – Series – My Life is Murder
Best Makeup Design – Series – The Brokenwood Mysteries
New Zealand Film Commission Best Short Film – Rochelle
Best Factual Series – Moving House
Best Reality Series – The Restaurant That Makes Mistakes
Best Current Affairs Programme – The Hui
New Zealand On Air Best Children’s Programme – First Place
New Zealand On Air Best Pasifika Programme – We The South: The Manukau Rovers Story
Best News Coverage – Kiingitanga Tangihanga
Best Sports Programme – Grit & Glory
Best Live Event Coverage – Te Raa Nehu o te Tangihanga o te Kiingi Tuuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII
Best Director: Multi-Camera – Marcus Kennedy (2024 Bledisloe Cup – Wellington)
Reporter of the Year – Indira Stewart (TVNZ+ In-Depth)
Best Presenter: News and Current Affairs – John Campbell
