Who We Are

Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival is presented by The New Zealand Film Festival Trust under the distinguished patronage of Her Excellency The Right Honourable Dame Cindy Kiro, Governor-General of New Zealand.

Kaine Thompson is a consultant working in international trade regulation, public and government relations, local government and the arts.  He is a Trustee of the Wellington Theatre Awards Trust, the Embassy Theatre Trust and Kia Puāwai/Youth Horizons which is a national organisation established to improve the lives of tamariki, rangatahi and whānau across Aotearoa. He's worked with Stanford University's Global Projects Centre focussing on urban development as part of the global smart cities initiative and was an expert advisory panellist for the United Nations D­­evelopment Programme's Parliamentary Democracy initiative supporting the development of democratic practice in emerging democracies. In his early life, Kaine featured in a number of locally produced films and television series' and has long since maintained an active interest in arts administration. 

Catherine Fitzgerald ONZM has produced a slate of award winning feature and short films (The Orator was nominated by New Zealand for Foreign Language Oscar 2012), which have screened in film festivals worldwide including Berlin, Venice, Cannes, and Sundance, and has contributed creatively to the production of many more. She is a Member of the Asia Pacific Screen Academy, and received South Pacific Pictures Award For Achievement In Film (2014) and SPADA NZ Independent Producer Of The Year Award (2011), among other prizes and honours.

Robin Laing is one of New Zealand’s most experienced film producers. She has worked with a number of directors including Gaylene Preston, Christine Jeffs and Niki Caro. She is founding President of WIFT in New Zealand and founding Chair of The New Zealand Film and Television School. In 1993 she was awarded an MBE for services to New Zealand film and in 2008 received a WIFT Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Film Industry.

Paolo Bertolin is a film programmer, writer and producer. He is a member of the selection committee of Venice International Film Festival. He has worked for several international film festivals and institutions, including Cannes' Directors' Fortnight, Locarno Open Doors, IFFRotterdam, Doha Film Institute, Mumbai Film Festival, Beijing Film Festival, Cannes’ Semaine de la critique, Udine Far East Film Festival and Nyon Visions du réel.

As a film critic and journalist, he has written articles for Italian and international publications, including Rivista del cinematografo, Cineforum, Segnocinema, Il manifesto, The Korea Times, Cahiers du cinéma, Positif and Senses of Cinema.

Paolo has production credits on Berlinale Competition entries Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories by Phan Dang Di and A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery by Lav Diaz.

As NZIFF Festival Manager, Matt leads day-to-day operations and oversees the delivery of the festival. Working closely with the Artistic Director and wider team, he gets a buzz out of bringing the best and brightest in local and world cinema to audiences in Aotearoa.

Matt’s first involvement with the festival was in the early 2010’s, when he spent his uni days bunking off film lectures to sneak into screenings at the Paramount. He was squandering student living costs to pay for movies, until he realised he could volunteer at the festival in exchange for precious cinema tickets.

Later, he worked at NZ Fringe and Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts, enjoyed a stint as a travel writer in Spain, Portugal and the UK, and joined the programming team at Arts Centre Melbourne, before returning to NZIFF.

Carmen Gray is a film programmer, arts journalist, critic and educator from rural South Canterbury, who studied at Otago and in Tāmaki Makaurau, and lives in Berlin. She is on the selection committee of the Berlin International Film Festival, and previously programmed for Open City Docs, the Winterthur International Short Film Festival, Doculab in Guadalajara, Berlin Critics’ Week and education charity Into Film UK.

As an industry consultant, she advises on films at the editing stage of production for First Cut Lab and others. She covers politics, resistance movements and the arts in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Balkans regions as a freelance investigative journalist for The New York Times, and has written extensively on cinema as a critic and trade reviewer for numerous outlets including Sight & Sound, The Criterion Collection, Screen International and The Guardian. She has served as a jury member in more than 80 film festivals world-wide.

Leo Koziol (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Rakaipaaka) is founder and director of the Wairoa Māori Film Festival. It is the longest-running indigenous film festival of New Zealand and takes place in a traditional marae (Maori assembly house) every year. Leo Koziol worked as cultural advisor in the Ministry of Maori Development and curates short films for the New Zealand International Film Festival (Ngā Whanaunga programme). He has also curated for various film festivals in Canada, Italy, Polynesia, the United States and Australia.

Leo is the subject of short film "Native in Nuhaka" by award winning film maker Hiona Henare. Leo is a member of the Anishnaabe Bawaadan Artists Collective based in Ontario, Canada. In 2019, he was presented with the Te Aupounamu Māori in Screen Excellence Award. In 2020, he was a guest film expert in the visitor programme of the Goethe Institute at the Berlinale film festival. Leo is Indigenous Editor for Letterboxd and in 2025 is a mentor for the Indigenous Film Criticism Fellowship, an initiative of Curating Indigenous Circumpolar Cultural Sovereignty at York University (Canada), in partnership with the Banff Centre, imagineNATIVE, and the Arctic Indigenous Film Fund.

Director of 'Pollywood Pasifika Film' - Craig Fasi acknowledges 18 years of producing a festival of Pasifika focused film for annual exhibition to NZ and the world. Equipped with a Bachelor of Visual Arts from MIT, determination and passion, Mr Fasi, of Niue decent, boasts 20 years of experience working with Pasifika people in the Film/multi-media art arena. Mr Fasi is an independent with no restrictions in terms of dedication to normalizing Pasifika People working in Film & Multi-media art. “Pasifika content is underestimated – realizing the content into production for screen is key” says Mr Fasi. Working with Council, Education, Government, Corporate & Private organizations continues to sustain and validate the work Mr Fasi contributes to the creative landscape.

Amanda Jane Robinson is a filmmaker based in Tāmaki Makaurau. She has produced numerous short films and music videos and is currently developing several short and feature projects with the New Zealand Film Commission.

Amanda has worked in marketing and publicity within the book publishing industry and has held positions at various screen sector organisations. In 2020 she founded Vetiver Pictures specialising in film production, artist collaborations, and cinema programming – she currently co-programmes the monthly Capitol Cinema Film Club.  

Jordan is NZIFF’s Christchurch Coordinator and has worked with the Festival for several years. A longtime cinema worker in various roles, Jordan brings a unique perspective shaped by time spent on the ground with audiences - serving and speaking with everyone from die-hard cinephiles to casual festival-goers. This frontline experience informs Jordan’s programming instincts and passion for curating films that resonate across a wide spectrum of tastes.

When programming, Jordan looks for films that are emotionally moving or thought-provoking - whether through stunning cinematography, a powerful story, a fresh portrayal of life, or even just plain shock value and quirk. Personally, Jordan loves grimy genre films, classic Japanese cinema (from Godzilla to Ozu), and firmly believes Josie and the Pussycats is the greatest film ever made.

Heperi is drawn to films that reflect the unique ways Aotearoa’s culture, history, and landscapes shape us as storytellers. Influenced by Sam Neill’s 1995 description of our national cinema as a “Cinema of Unease,” he is especially interested in how New Zealand filmmaking has evolved in the decades since - gravitating toward work that captures a distinct homegrown tone and cinematic style.

A filmmaker from a whānau of filmmakers, Heperi’s documentary Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen premiered at NZIFF in 2018. His short film First Horse, which he wrote and produced, screened in the New Zealand’s Best section in 2023. He also spent eight years at Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, developing an encyclopaedic knowledge of New Zealand cinema.

Heperi’s personal tastes are broad, but he holds a deep admiration for the work of Akira Kurosawa and has a soft spot for documentaries that introduce him to lives and perspectives outside his own.