10th E Tū Whānau Rangatahi Film Awards to be celebrated at Māoriland Film Festival

Māoriland celebrates ten years of collaboration with E Tū Whānau (ETW) for the annual Rangatahi (youth) Film Awards held during the Māoriland Film Festival (MFF).

The ETW Rangatahi Film Awards recognise filmmakers aged 12-25 from all over Aotearoa who have created films throughout the year at Māoriland’s rangatahi-led workshops.

In these two-day workshops, rangatahi are taught essential filmmaking skills and given one of ETW’s six themes to make a short film about – Aroha, tikanga, mana/manaaki, korero awhi, whanaungatanga, whakapapa.

E Tū Whānau – a movement for positive change developed by Māori for Māori – first partnered with Māoriland in 2014. Over the past ten years, Māoriland has made over 100 films with 2,000+ rangatahi across New Zealand – many are now working in the screen industry including at Māoriland Film Festival.

Previous winners of the awards include Isaac Te Reina, whose recent production ‘Whiti’ won Best Short Drama at MFF2021; Oriwa Hakaraia, whose short film ‘Ruarangi’ was an official selection at the Hawai’i International Film Festival 2022 and Skábmagovat Indigenous Film Festival 2022; Te Mahara Tamehana, whose short film ‘Bub’ (co-directed with Oriwa Hakaraia) screened at Toronto’s ImagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in 2019; and Te Waiarangi Ratana, whose short film ‘Manu Masters’ is currently in development to be expanded into a TV series.

The ETW Film Rangatahi Film workshops are an entry point into ‘Te Uru Maire’, the Māoriland development pathway into the screen industry. Te Uru Maire prepares rangatahi to enter high value creative work by providing access to training, mentorship and professional development.

“E Tū Whānau workshops and awards are all about creating a space where rangatahi are enabled to bring their stories to the big screen. Each rangatahi we’ve come across has the potential to thrive in the world of creative storytelling. Our tamariki are bright and talented, stories run in their blood, and our kaupapa provides reassurance that they are capable of pursuing a career in storytelling.” says Oriwa Hakaraia, Pou Ruruku Rangatahi at Māoriland and ETW workshop facilitator.

The 2023 ETW Rangatahi Film Awards will acknowledge over 50 filmmakers from last year’s workshops in Ōtaki, Whakatāne, Tūranganui-a-Kiwa, Rotorua, Te Araroa and Kaitaia.