Film festival to bring ‘joy to the lives of Kiwis’

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Gisborne will be part of the New Zealand Film Festival, after new funding was awarded by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

New Zealand Film Festival Trust received $850,000 to expand the festival into additional centres (Northland and Gisborne), reinstate the schools programme in Auckland and Wellington, and add New Plymouth, Dunedin, and Nelson.

It was one of 22 cultural sector initiatives which have been named as the latest recipients of the Cultural Sector Regeneration Fund.

In the second of four evaluation rounds, 22 proposals were approved for funding, up to a total of $7.9m, contingent on funding agreements to be signed in early 2023. In total, 224 Full Proposals were received, requesting funding to a value of $96.1m.

The Regeneration Fund is designed to support the arts, culture, and heritage sectors to recover from the impacts of Covid, with $28 million allocated to support strategic, cultural sector-led initiatives that will have lasting benefits, says Laulu Mac Leauanae, Tumu Whakarae Chief Executive of Manatū Taonga.

“We're delighted to support these 22 initiatives through the Cultural Sector Regeneration Fund. These sector-led projects will help grow career opportunities, build capabilities across the sector and provide more access to arts, culture and heritage for people in Aotearoa New Zealand to enjoy.

“This Fund supports Aotearoa's cultural infrastructure and takes a long-term view to invest in initiatives that will have a lasting impact for the cultural sector and our communities.”

Manatū Taonga Pou Mataaho o Te Aka Tūhono, Deputy Chief Executive Investment and Outcomes Joe Fowler says the latest tranche of recipients represent a balanced mix of investments at a critical time to support the sector's transition from surviving Covid-19 to thriving.

“Covid-19 has a long tail, for individuals and our wider cultural sector. Few sectors were hit as hard as arts, culture and heritage, especially in performing arts, so it's critical we invest now in the people and organisations so that they can continue to bring joy to the lives of New Zealanders.

“We felt privileged that the cultural sector shared their ideas and proposals with us, and for the thousands of people that let us know what they thought of the proposals in our open consultation. These voices gave us confidence that the initiatives we have funded have the backing and support that they will need to succeed.

“In this round we received over 8000 public feedback submissions, which is an outstanding level of interest in the future of our arts, culture and heritage sectors.

“The investments we're making are balanced across national and significant regional initiatives reaching Māori, Pacific, and disabled communities across performing arts, visual arts, literature, the safeguarding of Mātauranga Māori and the Galleries Libraries Archives Museums Iwi Records (GLAMIR) sector,” says Joe Fowler.