Queen's Birthday Honours: Screenwriter and film producer Fran Walsh honoured with damehood

Fran Walsh
Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit

She's been celebrated as one of New Zealand's greatest film-makers, as well as one of Hollywood's "biggest living mysteries" - and now Fran Walsh has joined the ranks of one of our highest orders.

For her services to film, screenwriter and film producer Fran Walsh has been made a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

Walsh said the fact she's been a working mother for the past 24 years made her even more grateful to receive the honour.

"It's just something that women take for granted - that they have two jobs, and they have to do them both well - which is almost impossible.

"Working women, working mothers - it's a harder road."

Walsh is joining her partner in love and in work - Sir Peter Jackson - in the Order. In 2010 Jackson was invested as a knight, becoming New Zealand's first "lord of film".

And in 2012 he was named as an Additional Member of the Order of Merit, an even higher honour appointed only on special occasions.

The pair have worked together on films since the late 1980s, with films like Heavenly Creatures and The Lovely Bones under their belts, along with New Zealand's highest-earning film franchise - The Lord of the Rings.

Walsh said receiving the honour was a top compliment for her work in an industry that can "eat you alive".

"Film is utterly demanding. Every second of your life can be spent on set."

The honour was more personal and meaningful than any big film award, she said, being from New Zealand.

Fran Walsh (left) with partner Peter Jackson and actress Saoirse Ronan. Photo / File

However, she had no intention of going by the title "Dame Fran".

"It would be very weird," she said laughing.

Walsh is notoriously private, so much so that she was described by the New York Times in 2012 as one of "Hollywood's biggest living mysteries".

Walsh said her 1994 film Heavenly Creatures still stood out as a career highlight, both because it was a New Zealand story, and because it entailed Jackson "stepping out of his comfort zone" in terms of directing.

"We were looking at a piece of history and thinking, 'What really happened there?'

"It was certainly sensationalised in the media and we wanted to tell a more personal story."

Walsh is working on a new script, which she hopes she can share with the public next year.

Looking forward, she said she'd love to find a way to help young aspiring filmmakers.

"It's difficult, because it's always going to be a marginal industry in New Zealand.

"We're not Hollywood, and we never will be - there isn't a massive amount of funding available."

It's important to keep building up New Zealand's film industry - to keep building on what we have, she said.

"Otherwise we're a nursery, and everybody goes away. We don't develop our own infrastructure and build the strengths of our own industry."