Jharaiz Kiriona ticked off a few firsts in the making of his film for the Tropfest competition.
It was the first time he had entered the short film festival and his first time in the director's chair. And not only did the film make the finals, the former Wanganui High School student took out the Te Tohu Auahatanga Maori Award.
Tropfest is the world's largest short film festival and the New Zealand version was held in New Plymouth on Saturday night.
Wings, a seven-minute film, was the idea of writer Georgina Bloomfield who approached Kiriona with it. When they began putting it together Kiriona was only in an acting role before the original director had to pull out.
"I just wanted to develop my character," Kiriona said. "Initially I was just acting on it because I hadn't directed anything before but everyone knew I knew the story better than anyone.