A Dark Day for New Zealand’s Screen Industry

The New Zealand Film Commission's press release of 30 September 2026 makes for grim reading.

The decision to conclude its Core Funding Programme for screen industry organisations is, in my view, a misstep that will further handicap an already brutalised sector.

For years, many practitioners have volunteered countless hours to sustain these organisations, which provide New Zealand's fragile screen sector, its precarious contractors and service providers with something it desperately needs: cohesion, advocacy and continuity.

These organisations are part of the infrastructure that allows a small, fragmented and somewhat tenuously constituted industry to function.

Removing this infrastructure in the name of “fewer, higher-impact investments” seems to me profoundly short-sighted.

The industry has managed to get great bang for its buck because people such as myself have augmented the NZFC contribution with countless hours of unpaid consultancy. I struggle to imagine investments that could deliver a “higher impact”.

I spent ten years on the board of the Directors and Editors Guild of Aotearoa New Zealand (DEGANZ), so I know first-hand how much work is done by people who are committed to keeping the sector connected and functioning, often for no monetary return.

This isn't a criticism of the NZFC itself. The Commission has been placed in an increasingly difficult position by successive governments, both left and right, that have failed to adequately resource it. That situation is, in my view, unacceptable.

Successive governments, by failing to invest adequately in local storytellers, have denied us opportunities to grow ten more Taika Waititis, ten more Peter Jacksons, ten more Jane Campions, ten more Andrew Adamsons… You get my drift and perhaps you share my frustration.

The organisations affected by the decision include:

Occupational Guilds & Associations

  • Directors and Editors Guild of Aotearoa New Zealand (DEGANZ)

  • Equity New Zealand

  • NZ Writers Guild

  • Screen Industry Guild of Aotearoa New Zealand (SIGANZ)

  • Screen Production & Development Association (SPADA)

Māori Screen Production Advocacy

  • Ngā Aho Whakaari Māori in Screen

Equity Organisations

  • Pacific Island Screen Artists (PISA)

  • Pan-Asian Screen Collective (PASC)

  • Women in Film and Television New Zealand (WIFT)

Professional Development

  • Script to Screen

These organisations do very different things and represent very different communities. But collectively they help keep the sector connected, advocate for practitioners and provide opportunities for people to develop their careers. That matters.

New Zealand has a remarkably successful screen industry for a country of our size, but success should not be mistaken for security. We need to be careful that, in trying to make our investments more “impactful”, we don't undermine the very structures that have helped make the industry possible.

This feels like a very dark day for New Zealand's screen industry. And, more broadly, a deeply worrying indication of the direction in which our creative sector is being driven by a Government with no serious plan for unlocking the nation's greatest untapped resource: our creativity.

Gabriel Reid
3 October 2026