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'HOME' - Film School student film accepted for New Zealand international film festival

Friday 27 June 2014, 2:04PM

By Whitireia New Zealand

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HOME, the end-of-year film by the 2013 intake of students from the New Zealand Film and Television School (the Film School), has been invited to screen in this year’s prestigious New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) in Auckland and Wellington.

The film, starring Dame Kate Harcourt doyenne of New Zealand stage and screen and rising star Gentiane Lupi (Eagle vs Shark, Kombi Nation), is the story of an elderly woman battling her failing mind and the outside world to return a beloved possession to her daughter.

“This story has been beautifully shot and sensitively told, and we’re delighted to see the students’ creativity, hard work and exacting attention to detail rewarded in this way,” says Film School Executive Director Sashi Meanger.

“Our students undergo an intense year of hands-on training, tutored by some of the New Zealand film industry’s most experienced filmmakers. The students’ learning curve is steep and we expect a huge commitment from them throughout the year, but, by the end of it, all they are ready to step straight on to any film set in the world and start working across a range of roles.

“Because they’re trained by people who work in the industry, their tutors frequently become their employers once they’ve graduated, because they know the quality of the students’ education and the skills and attitude they bring to set.

“At the end of the year, our students are capable of producing a film, from the first draft of a script to the final movie for the big screen, filling all the roles of from scripting to filming, pre- and post-production and publicity.  Having HOME accepted by the NZIFF indicates the quality of the work our students have learned to produce,” Mr Meanger says.

The film’s director, Adam Reynolds, began experimenting with film at a young age and in 2012 was a finalist in the 48HOURS filmmaking contest and won the ‘Rialto Channel’s Rising Talent’ award.  At his graduation from the The Film School in December 2013, Adam was awarded the Film Career Education Trust Board Award for Outstanding Student.  Since graduating, Adam Reynolds is working on writing script ideas of his own.

The New Zealand Film and Television School is a subsidiary of Whitireia New Zealand Limited.  It offers a one year Certificate in Introduction to Film and Television Production.