NZ’s $37m production fund names heads

The New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) has appointed a former Netflix executive as one of the joint heads of its NZ$50m (US$37m) fund for premium productions targeting international audiences.

Polly Fryer

Polly Fryer, who recently returned to New Zealand after a two-year stint in LA as a production and post-production executive at Netflix, will head up the fund alongside Kay Ellmers, MD of Tūmanako Productions in Auckland. The pair started in the role this week.

The NZFC is collaborating with New Zealand On Air and Te Māngai Pāho, the body responsible for promoting Maori language and culture across the audiovisual industry, to deliver the fund.

Fryer and Ellmers “represent a bold and progressive future for New Zealand filmmakers wanting to create content that will appeal to audiences overseas,” according to the three agencies.

Recently announced by arts, culture and heritage minister Carmel Sepuloni, the fund supports the local production of high-quality productions that tell New Zealand stories for global audiences.

Ellmers has been a consultant commissioner of documentary and factual programmes for Māori Television and has mentored filmmakers through the New Zealand Women In Film & Television’s mentorship programme.

Originally from the UK, Fryer worked on various productions before moving to New Zealand in 2006. She produced Emmy-nominated docudrama The Golden Hour as head of production at Desert Road, and in 2017/18 produced David Farrier’s Netflix original series Dark Tourist.

Together, Ellmers and Fryer will report to NZFC head of production and development Leanne Saunders, supported by NZFC’s Karen Te O Kahurangi Waaka-Tibble, who is responsible for increasing production and capacity within the Māori audiovisual sector.

Preference is given to those applications to the fund that show the highest capacity to develop skills and talent in the local industry, as well as proposals that demonstrate the highest level of New Zealand cultural content.

Preference is also being given to projects that are creatively assessed as having “bold and ambitious concepts” with international reach, and productions that can demonstrate established consultation, engagement with or inclusion of Māori creatives.

The New Zealand screen industry last year launched a 10-year-road map designed to grow the sector and make the country more attractive to overseas productions.