This year’s Big Screen Symposium has named seven more speakers.
Chelsie Preston Crayford (Caterpillar) and Callum Devlin (The Weed Eaters) talk first features and the step up to long-form directing: expanding vision, navigating constraint, leading collaborators, and embracing the discoveries and compromises that shape a first feature in the realities of making work today.
For many directors, the first feature is not a beginning but a reckoning: the point where years of practice, persistence and instinct are tested at scale. It demands a shift in craft, leadership and resilience, often revealing as much about the director as the film itself.
Māoriland’s co-founder and Kaitaki Pūrakau (Head of Content) Libby Hakaraia and Film Festival Director Madeleine Hakaraia de Young talk growing an idea into the world’s largest indigenous film festival, supported by a range of initiatives across production, talent development, employment pathways and Indigenous collaboration … all leading to international recognition at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival with the Global Production Award for Economic Impact.
Documentary luminary Pietra Brettkelly talks Crocodile, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, and realised over 13 years across continents and cultures. Brettkelly will address the practical and creative realities behind the film, from sustaining connection across borders to navigating the uncertainties of process, funding, authorship and shared creative work.
Composers Karl Sölve Steven and Rob Thorne will talk about the score for Mārama as a narrative force, breaking down the musical components that underpin the film’s emotional and thematic weight, and combining orchestral composition with Māori instrumentation, shaping tone, perspective and tension within the film’s reflection on power, history and identity. Rooted in practice, the conversation opens out to practitioners across disciplines, offering a thoughtful lens on how creative partnerships can deepen the work and expand what is possible.
Speakers named this week are in addition to the five (plus MC Nikki Si’ulepa) named last week.
BSS 2026 runs 3 & 4 July, in Auckland. Tix are now available.
