SPADA, New Zealand’s screen producers’ guild, has announced veteran screen producer Robin Scholes as recipient of 2023’s SPADA / The Data Book Industry Champion Award.
Recipients of the Award are people who’ve demonstrated passion and professionalism, and made a significant contribution to Aotearoa’s screen production industry.
Scholes has been a creative collaborator and producer for some of this country’s most well-known filmmakers, producing acclaimed films such as Lee Tamahori’s Once Were Warriors, his most recent films, Mahana/The Patriarch and the recently-premiered The Convert, and Andrew Adamson’s Mister Pip.
Once Were Warriors was Scholes’ first feature, and it achieved international acclaim as well as earning blockbuster box office status and state-of-the-nation debate in New Zealand.
Her other feature films include Broken English (1996), Rain (as executive producer, 2001), Crooked Earth (2001) and The Tattooist (2007), while her television drama includes The Bad Seed (2018), Black Hands (2020), and both series of The New Legends of Monkey (2018-20) for Netflix, ABC and TVNZ 2.
Scholes is a pioneer in creating a sustainable career in the screen industry. She was a founding partner of the independent television company Communicado in 1983, and produced a formidable body of television work, including the series Magic Kiwis and Heroes, the TV drama Greenstone and info series Business World. Communicado became one of New Zealand’s most successful independent production companies, at one point employing more than 100 people.
After overseeing Communicado’s merger with Australian company Screentime, Robin took a senior role at Julie Christie’s New Zealand production company Touchdown in 2004 (now Warner Bros. International Television Production New Zealand).
As an independent producer, Scholes has continued to be a driving force in the New Zealand film and television industry and is a sought-after mentor to a new generation of filmmakers. She is a collaborative practitioner who’s renowned for championing the directors she works with as much as possible as they seek to realise their creative vision. She was awarded an OBE in 1997 for her services to Film.
Scholes will be presented with her award at the Harbourside Function Centre in Wellington on 16 November, as part of the 2023 SPADA Conference 16-17 November.
