Seed 2022
Judges Panel
David Fa’auliuli Mamea has worked on film, television, theatre and radio projects in genres ranging from sci-fi to soap, comedy to horror, and documentary to drama. He has won the Adam Award for Best New Zealand Play, a New Zealand Writers Guild SWANZ Award for Best Play, and a New Zealand Radio Award for Best Dramatic Production. A Wellingtonian at heart, he lives in rural Northland with his Lovely Wife, son, cat, two dogs, two ponies, two kunekune pigs, seven sheep, and innumerable chickens, including a rooster called Ghost Dog.
David Fa’auliuli Mamea
David Fa’auliuli Mamea has worked on film, television, theatre and radio projects in genres ranging from sci-fi to soap, comedy to horror, and documentary to drama. He has won the Adam Award for Best New Zealand Play, a New Zealand Writers Guild SWANZ Award for Best Play, and a New Zealand Radio Award for Best Dramatic Production. A Wellingtonian at heart, he lives in rural Northland with his Lovely Wife, son, cat, two dogs, two ponies, two kunekune pigs, seven sheep, and innumerable chickens, including a rooster called Ghost Dog.
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Fiona Samuel MNZM is a writer and director for television, radio, film and theatre, and a NZ Arts Foundation Laureate. Her body of work includes the original TV drama series The Marching Girls, one-woman stage play Lashings of Whipped Cream – A Session With a Teenage Dominatrix, television documentary Virginity, short films Bitch and Song of the Siren, radio dramas Blonde Bombshell and A Short History of Contraception and telefeatures Piece of My Heart, Bliss and Consent – The Louise Nicholas Story. Victoria Texas Independent Film Festival.
Fiona Samuel
Fiona Samuel MNZM is a writer and director for television, radio, film and theatre, and a NZ Arts Foundation Laureate. Her body of work includes the original TV drama series The Marching Girls, one-woman stage play Lashings of Whipped Cream – A Session With a Teenage Dominatrix, television documentary Virginity, short films Bitch and Song of the Siren, radio dramas Blonde Bombshell and A Short History of Contraception and telefeatures Piece of My Heart, Bliss and Consent – The Louise Nicholas Story. Victoria Texas Independent Film Festival.
Sav Rodgers is a filmmaker and writer from Kansas City. His creative work centres on the queer experience through a comedic or personal lens. Director of Chasing Amy (2022). Sav is the Founder and Executive Director of the Transgender Film Center, assisting trans creators to bring finished films to audiences around the world. Serving on the Board of Directors for the Transgender Film Center, Film Society KC, and Advisory Council of the Vidiots Foundation. And a programmer at numerous film festivals, including Slamdance, Outfest, and the Victoria Texas Independent Film Festival.
Sav Rodgers
Sav Rodgers is a filmmaker and writer from Kansas City. His creative work centres on the queer experience through a comedic or personal lens. Director of Chasing Amy (2022). Sav is the Founder and Executive Director of the Transgender Film Center, assisting trans creators to bring finished films to audiences around the world. Serving on the Board of Directors for the Transgender Film Center, Film Society KC, and Advisory Council of the Vidiots Foundation. And a programmer at numerous film festivals, including Slamdance, Outfest, and the Victoria Texas Independent Film Festival.
Briar Grace-Smith, ONZM, is a filmmaker of Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Hau descent and is a writer of award-winning plays, screenplays, short fiction, and television scripts. Briar is the screen writer, Co-Director, and actor in Cousins – an adaptation of the novel by Patricia Grace, released in New Zealand (March 2021) and distributed by ARRAY in the US. She was an actor, Co-Showrunner, and Director of Rūrangi Series 2: Rising Lights. Briar is an inaugural recipient of the Arts Foundation Laureate Award. In 2019 she received the Merata Mita indigenous women Directors Fellowship. In 2022 she was made a member of the Directors branch of the Academy and was selected as a writer in residence at the University of Iowa’s Spring Writers Residency. Briar works as a mentor for Script to Screen's South Auckland Shorts, and Storycamp Aotearoa.
Briar Grace-Smith
Briar Grace-Smith, ONZM, is a filmmaker of Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Hau descent and is a writer of award-winning plays, screenplays, short fiction, and television scripts. Briar is the screen writer, Co-Director, and actor in Cousins – an adaptation of the novel by Patricia Grace, released in New Zealand (March 2021) and distributed by ARRAY in the US. She was an actor, Co-Showrunner, and Director of Rūrangi Series 2: Rising Lights. Briar is an inaugural recipient of the Arts Foundation Laureate Award. In 2019 she received the Merata Mita indigenous women Directors Fellowship. In 2022 she was made a member of the Directors branch of the Academy and was selected as a writer in residence at the University of Iowa’s Spring Writers Residency. Briar works as a mentor for Script to Screen's South Auckland Shorts, and Storycamp Aotearoa.
Victor John Rodger ONZM is a New Zealand journalist, actor, and award-winning playwright of Samoan and Pākehā heritage. His work often deals with race and identity. In 2001, he won the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award. his plays include Ranterstantrum (2002) and My Name is Gary Cooper (2007), as well as the acclaimed Black Faggot. His television work includes Shortland Street and Teine Sa: The Ancient Ones.
Victor Rodger
Victor John Rodger ONZM is a New Zealand journalist, actor, and award-winning playwright of Samoan and Pākehā heritage. His work often deals with race and identity. In 2001, he won the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award. his plays include Ranterstantrum (2002) and My Name is Gary Cooper (2007), as well as the acclaimed Black Faggot. His television work includes Shortland Street and Teine Sa: The Ancient Ones.
Writer, producer, advocate.
Shuchi Kothari
Writer, producer, advocate.
Marina Alofagia McCartney (Pitonu'ū, Satupa'itea and Vailoa, Palauli - Savai'i, Samoa / Newcastle – England / Romani - England) Marina is an award-winning filmmaker with films featured in numerous festivals, including Palm Springs, NZIFF, ImagineNATIVE, Hawai’i International Film Festival. Marina is currently a PhD candidate exploring Moana Pasifika film.
Marina McCartney
Marina Alofagia McCartney (Pitonu'ū, Satupa'itea and Vailoa, Palauli - Savai'i, Samoa / Newcastle – England / Romani - England) Marina is an award-winning filmmaker with films featured in numerous festivals, including Palm Springs, NZIFF, ImagineNATIVE, Hawai’i International Film Festival. Marina is currently a PhD candidate exploring Moana Pasifika film.
Samoan New Zealander, Dana Youngman is an award-winning content executive and board director, with 25 years of leadership experience in the New Zealand Screen Sector. A respected Television Director, Writer, Producer and Executive Producer, Dana’s also the former head of Production at TVNZ. Most recently she was the network executive and content commissioner at Sky Network television, TVNZ, and Streaming service NEON. Dana currently works as the Strategic Advisor to the Chief Executive at the New Zealand Film Commission.
Dana Youngman
Samoan New Zealander, Dana Youngman is an award-winning content executive and board director, with 25 years of leadership experience in the New Zealand Screen Sector. A respected Television Director, Writer, Producer and Executive Producer, Dana’s also the former head of Production at TVNZ. Most recently she was the network executive and content commissioner at Sky Network television, TVNZ, and Streaming service NEON. Dana currently works as the Strategic Advisor to the Chief Executive at the New Zealand Film Commission.
Seed & Seed Advanced Results Announcement Date:
May 5, 2022
Grant Recipients
Seed Recipients:
Denny lands the role of extremist supervillain on children's television. But being the victim of a hate crime triggers a struggle with his identity as an Indian actor, contributing to an ingrained culture of racism.
Navneeth Nair
Bismillah Baron vs. The People
Denny lands the role of extremist supervillain on children's television. But being the victim of a hate crime triggers a struggle with his identity as an Indian actor, contributing to an ingrained culture of racism.
Clucky as f*@k and crushed when she miscarries, a young woman's fight to have kids with her trans wife almost burns down the family she already has.
Michele Powles and Anna Rose Duckworth
Put a Baby in Me
Clucky as f*@k and crushed when she miscarries, a young woman's fight to have kids with her trans wife almost burns down the family she already has.
A thirty-something drummer grasps a second chance at stardom, fifteen years after she was almost famous. To seize her shot, she battles stage fright, reluctant bandmates, and what's always held her back most -- herself.
Alex MacDonald
Teenage Dirtbag
A thirty-something drummer grasps a second chance at stardom, fifteen years after she was almost famous. To seize her shot, she battles stage fright, reluctant bandmates, and what's always held her back most -- herself.
Frumpy spinster, Morag, has menopause, she also has gained the power of uncontrollable invisibility. To reclaim her visibility she must commit acts of heinous violence against those who disrespect her.
Daisy Lawless
Morag
Frumpy spinster, Morag, has menopause, she also has gained the power of uncontrollable invisibility. To reclaim her visibility she must commit acts of heinous violence against those who disrespect her.
A comedy-drama about a farm worker who tries to stop her teenager’s superficial desires spiralling out of control, through a series of seemingly ludicrous tests.
Ying Ly
What Did You Say to Me?!
A comedy-drama about a farm worker who tries to stop her teenager’s superficial desires spiralling out of control, through a series of seemingly ludicrous tests.
22-year-old loser Junior meets Senior, himself from thirty years in the future, returned to the past to attend his father's funeral. But unbeknownst to him, Senior's planning a roundabout suicide, killing Junior to kill himself.
Matt Butler
Junior Senior
22-year-old loser Junior meets Senior, himself from thirty years in the future, returned to the past to attend his father's funeral. But unbeknownst to him, Senior's planning a roundabout suicide, killing Junior to kill himself.
When a lonely teenager befriends a lost spirit, she strikes a deal to help him find his body if he helps her win the affection of her unrequited love.
Ankita Singh
Bindu Patel and the Lost Spirit
When a lonely teenager befriends a lost spirit, she strikes a deal to help him find his body if he helps her win the affection of her unrequited love.
A compulsive people pleaser gets dragged ever-deeper into the local criminal underworld in search of her brother's emotional support cat, until she heroically stops giving a shit.
Jordan Windsor, Angella Dravid & Tim Fletcher
Yaya Says Nah
A compulsive people pleaser gets dragged ever-deeper into the local criminal underworld in search of her brother's emotional support cat, until she heroically stops giving a shit.
When an unsettling murder takes place at a remote rest home for dementia patients, the only witnesses to the crime are those whose memories cannot be trusted...
Nacoya Anderson
Moonripe
When an unsettling murder takes place at a remote rest home for dementia patients, the only witnesses to the crime are those whose memories cannot be trusted...
I am Dali is a magical realist drama about an art teacher who must help a troubled young boy that presents himself as Salvador Dali, the greatest Surrealist artist in history.
Erica Kent
I am Dali
I am Dali is a magical realist drama about an art teacher who must help a troubled young boy that presents himself as Salvador Dali, the greatest Surrealist artist in history.
Stuck in a hotel quarantine, a desperate writer attempts to finish her screenplay to save her career and marriage but soon becomes mad with mysterious visions that she must solve in order to save her life.
Ghazaleh Golbakhsh & Mia Maramara
The Ordeal
Stuck in a hotel quarantine, a desperate writer attempts to finish her screenplay to save her career and marriage but soon becomes mad with mysterious visions that she must solve in order to save her life.
When the wreck of a convict ship is discovered on the shores of pre-colonial New Zealand, the inhabitants of a missionary settlement become gripped by paranoia as they suspect that its ungodly survivors are secretly living among them.
Will Agnew
The Casket & The Cross
When the wreck of a convict ship is discovered on the shores of pre-colonial New Zealand, the inhabitants of a missionary settlement become gripped by paranoia as they suspect that its ungodly survivors are secretly living among them.
Seed Advanced Recipients:
A preacher's kid from Zimbabwe on the verge of teenage-hood arrives in Dunedin, where adapting to a new culture and her emerging sexuality threatens her relationship with her father.
Birdwatching
A preacher's kid from Zimbabwe on the verge of teenage-hood arrives in Dunedin, where adapting to a new culture and her emerging sexuality threatens her relationship with her father.
An immigrant woman's obsession with her five-year-old niece threatens to destroy the life she's carefully crafted in Aotearoa.
But Then There Was Ella
An immigrant woman's obsession with her five-year-old niece threatens to destroy the life she's carefully crafted in Aotearoa.
Returning to her island, Avaiki, Tui finds whole beaches have disappeared. Piecing together the cause of the devastation, Tui decolonises herself and her island, rehoming locals in the luxury resort built upon her family's land.
The Resort
Returning to her island, Avaiki, Tui finds whole beaches have disappeared. Piecing together the cause of the devastation, Tui decolonises herself and her island, rehoming locals in the luxury resort built upon her family's land.
When a keen young man goes to war he finds the enemy is his own flesh and blood.
Tū, God of War
When a keen young man goes to war he finds the enemy is his own flesh and blood.
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