For decades, New Zealand cinema has been defined by three words, conjured up by actor Sam Neill during his time shooting Jane Campion’s 1992 film The Piano – “beautiful, gothic, unique”.
These badges of distinction apply to New Zealand’s cinema of unease (In My Father’s Den, Utu, Man Alone), but in 2023 the New Zealand Film Commission finds itself at a crossroads – is the current marketplace too risky now to continue making gothic, unique cinema?
