1895 A.H. Whitehouse used Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope to exhibit New Zealand’s first motion pictures. 29 November: The New Zealand Herald carried the first advertisement for a motion picture.
1896 13 October: Charles Godfrey’s Vaudeville Company included the first screening of a motion picture as part of the show, at the Opera House, Auckland. 14 October: New Zealand’s first film review appeared in the New Zealand Herald.
1898–1900 Alfred Whitehouse was the first filmmaker in New Zealand, making 10 films in this period, and he was the first person to publicly screen a New Zealand film. His film The Departure of the Second Contingent for the Boer War (1900) is the oldest surviving film from New Zealand. 1 December: Whitehouse filmed the opening of the Auckland Exhibition. 26 December: Filming race days was a favorite occupation of early Australian and New Zealand filmmakers. Whitehouse filmed the Ellerslie race day in Auckland.
1901 The Salvation Army Limelight Department was commissioned by the government to film the visit by the Duke and Duchess of York.
1902 The Salvation Army’s Biorama Company began touring New Zealand to make films.
1904 British showman Thomas J. West showed films as part of a tour by the musical group The Brescians, then immigrated to Australia.
1905 During their filmmaking tours, Biorama developed a “real-time” method of filmmaking, where shots of the local community and locations were developed overnight, then exhibited within that community the next day.
1906 The importation of United States culture began with the exhibition of the film America at Work in Auckland. At 10,000 feet in length, requiring two projectors and two operators, it was a testimony to the technological mastery of the United States film industry. An amendment to the Offensive Publications Act 1892 allowed for the searching of premises for indecent material.
1907 Ned Kelly, the Australian bushranger feature, screened in New Zealand. It stands in stark contrast in every way to America at Work.
1908 New Zealand’s first building converted for permanent cinema use was His Majesty’s Theatre in Wellington. At the same time, the Hayward family bought the Royal Albert Hall in Auckland as a permanent cinema.
1910 The legislation that was to govern censorship in New Zealand until 1954, the Indecent Publications Act, became law. The first purpose-built cinema, the King’s Theatre in Wellington, was built.
1911 Suburban cinemas were built. 25 November: The Queens, in Auckland, was the first New Zealand cinema to screen continuously for 12 hours from 11:00 A.M.
1912 George Méliès brother, Gaston, arrived in New Zealand. He shot five travel films and three narratives, which were Hinemoa, How Chief Te Ponga Won His Bride (both 1,000 feet), and a short feature, Loved by a Maori Chieftess (2,000 feet).
1913 The first distribution company, New Zealand Picture Supplies, was incorporated by Fuller and the Haywards. 14 March: Méliès’ film, Loved by a Maori Chieftess, screened.
1914 1 August: George Tarr produced a short feature, also called Hinemoa, telling the story of the separation of Maori lovers. At 2,500 feet, it is, arguably, the first New Zealand feature film. It was shot and edited in eight days, and opened on 17 August.
1916 The government passed the Cinematograph-film Censorship Act, which established the office of the censor to maintain public decency in films. It was illegal to exhibit films that the censor had not approved.
1919 James McDonald toured New Zealand and made four ethnographic films that documented the traditional life of the Maori.
1920 Rudall Hayward was the production assistant on Australian director Beaumont Smith’s The Betrayer in Rotorua. Later, Hayward was assistant director of The Birth of New Zealand.
1921 Rudall Hayward’s first feature, The Bloke from Freeman’s Bay, was so bad that his uncle bought it from Rudall for 150 pounds, then burned it.
1922 Rudall Hayward directed My Lady of the Cave. It was the first time a New Zealand novel had been transformed into a film. He subsequently directed at least three other feature films—Rewi’s Last Stand (1925), The Te Kooti Trail (1927), and The Bush Cinderella (1928).
1923 The censor demanded that 900 feet of the first feature film, The Romance of Sleepy Hollow, be cut.
1926 Ted Coubray established New Zealand Radio Films Ltd. He made a series of short documentaries for industry, including Bottled Health (1926) and Magic Collar Box (1927).
1927 Rudall Hayward made the first of the community comedies, A Takapuna Scandal. Ted Coubray made the horse-racing feature Carbine’s Heritage, which attracted capacity audiences in Auckland.
1928 Michael and Joe Moodabe formed Amalgamated Theatres, which grew to a chain of 32 theaters by 1932, despite, or perhaps because of, the Depression.
1929 Edwin Coubray conducted the first sound tests for New Zealand Radio Films. Rudall and Hilda Hayward filmed and exhibited another seven community comedies. 20 December: The 3,500-seat picture palace, The Civic Theatre, opened in Auckland with the screening of the talkie Three Live Ghosts.
1930 The first New Zealand-made talkie was Ted Coubray’s first edition of Coubray Tone News. The film of Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front was temporarily banned.
1931 Rudall Hayward was Australia Cinesound’s reporter in New Zealand, and filmed the aftermath of the Napier earthquake.
1934 Because of some public dissatisfaction with the judgments of the censor, the parliament amended the Cinematographic Films Act so that the minister of internal affairs could appeal the censor’s ruling. A new classification was established to allow films to be screened without cuts at Film Society events.
1937 Reflecting a cultural fascination with horse racing, Rudall Hayward located cameras around the Ellerslie racecourse in order to capture greater realism in horse race filming.
1938 In order to make films that focused on Maori and other historical issues, Jim Manley incorporated the company Eppics.
1940 In an effort to generate a film industry in New Zealand, a group led by Gordon Mirams successfully lobbied the Labor government to establish a film production unit, particularly to film documentaries and travelogues. It came to fruition a year later.
1940–1970 Only three feature films were made during this period, all by John O’Shea.
1941 The National Film Unit began making films as the government’s principal film producer until 1990. Stanhope Andrews led the unit, and Rudall Hayward became a photographer.
1942 Recognizing the pedagogical value of films, the government established the National Film Library as a lending institution for schools to access.
1945 Gordon Mirams’ Speaking Candidly was the first book on the New Zealand film industry. With 133 cinemas in Australia and New Zealand, Robert Kerridge’s Odeon chain became the largest in the region.
1946 Rudall Hayward immigrated to the United Kingdom.
1947 Roger Mirams and Alun Falconer became freelance reporters for Fox Movietone.
1948 Falconer (director) and Mirams (cameraman) left the National Film Unit to form the Pacific Film Unit, which specialized in making short sponsored documentary films. New Zealand actor Bathie Stuart, who starred in Beaumont Smith’s Australian-made The Adventures of Algy (1925), presented film lectures in the United States.
1949 After working as a newsreel editor and director with the National Film Unit, Cecil Holmes immigrated to Australia. The government amended the censorship legislation so that films would be rated according to broad audience age groups, rather than being simply cut.
1950 The National Film Unit magazine-film Weekly Review ceased production after 459 issues since 1941. John O’Shea joined the Pacific Film Unit, which changed its name to Pacific Film Productions when Falconer left.
1952 The National Film Unit began producing the monthly magazine-film Pictorial Parade. The first feature since World War II, John O’Shea’s Broken Barrier, was released by Pacific Films. Rudall Hayward returned to New Zealand to make documentaries.
1954 The Wild One was banned.
1954–1957 Pacific Films produced Pacific Magazine, a magazine format newsreel intended to accompany features.
1955 Rebel without a Cause was allowed into the country after an appeal.
1957 Roger Mirams left Pacific Films, and the name John O’Shea became synonymous with Pacific Films. Rudall and Ramai Hayward traveled to China to make documentaries at the invitation of the Chinese government.
1960 By June, television was accessible throughout New Zealand, and cinema attendances dropped.
1964 John O’Shea’s Runaway was released by Pacific Films.
1966 Pacific Films released John O’Shea’s Don’t Let It Get You.
1967 Believing that the dialogue would cause embarrassment in mixed company, the censor stipulated that Ulysses must be shown only to segregated audiences.
1969 Pacific Films employed 22 permanent staff and television commercials accounted for three-quarters of its revenue.
1970 The short film This is New Zealand, made for the World Expo in 1970, was released to huge audience acclaim within the country. The first New Zealand feature film to be broadcast on New Zealand television was Rewi’s Last Stand. A film analysis course was introduced at Victoria University. This and other related events mark an upsurge of interest in films as cultural artifacts. February: The first color television signals were transmitted.
1972 The first Wellington Film Festival comprised a program of 17 films. December: The journal Alternative Cinema began publication of articles about New Zealand film culture.
1975 Auckland University offered a graduate course in film studies.
1977 Sleeping Dogs, directed by Roger Donaldson and introducing Sam Neill, was the first New Zealand film to be released in the United States. November: The Interim Film Commission met to advise the government on policy to establish and develop a film industry.
1978 As in Australia, the New Zealand government became concerned to develop and define “national identity” and culture. The Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand offered grants to film and television producers for programs that articulated these aims. November: The New Zealand Film Commission was formed to support and encourage New Zealand filmmakers through financing the development and production of feature films, with the broader brief of making New Zealand culture available to overseas markets through film.
1979–1991 With the upturn in the film industry, Pacific Films released six features: Sons for the Return Home (1979), Pictures (1981), Among the Cinders (1984), Leave All Fair (1985), Ngati (1987), and Te Rua (1991).
1980 Tax lawyers saw film production as a way of reducing company and individual taxes. Feature film production increased each year up to 1984, when 14 films were made. The tax laws were then changed. Color television was present in 67 percent of New Zealand homes. The New Zealand Film Commission took films to Cannes for exhibition.
1981 9 March: The New Zealand Film Archive was founded, with enthusiast Jonathan Dennis as first director.
1982 Sam Pillsbury’s The Scarecrow was chosen for screening during the Director’s fortnight at Cannes, the first New Zealand feature to be honored in this way.
1983 Roger Donaldson was the first New Zealand director to move to California to live and work, successfully making the transition in films like The Bounty (1984) and No Way Out (1987). Merata Mita was the first woman to direct a feature-length film, Patu! Jim Booth was the second appointment to the directorship of the New Zealand Film Commission. During his five-year term, 27 features were produced and the short film fund was established.
1984 This year marked the summit of film production with 14 films made. The government gradually closed loopholes in the taxation laws, severely restricting the flow of finance into film production, resulting in only four features being produced by 1986.
1985 Lawyer David Gascoigne replaced founding chairman Bill Sheat at the Film Commission.
1987 Concerned about the growth in sales and rentals of prerecorded videos, the parliament passed the Video Recordings Act, which established the Video Recordings Authority to censor and classify videos. The Guild of Film and Television Artists presented the Rudall Hayward Memorial Award to John O’Shea for “exceptional contributions to the industry.” Barry Barclay’s feature Ngati was chosen for the critics’ week at Cannes; it was the first film written and directed by Maori. Peter Jackson’s second film as director, Bad Taste, was released.
1988 Merata Mita was the first Maori woman to write and direct a feature fiction film, Mauri. In the United States, the home video market generated greater revenue than the cinema. The implications of this are still being realized, as investors and filmmakers realize that local productions have a market, which, in turn, generates greater activity in the film industry.
1990 The potential market for films had increased enormously through the penetration of color television and video players into homes, creating the market alluded to previously. Ownership of household video recorders increased from nil in 1980 to 68 percent by the end of the decade. Ninety-six percent of households owned at least one color television. John O’Shea was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE), an award of the British Commonwealth, for services to the film industry. Jane Campion’s An Angel at My Table won seven awards at the Venice Film Festival. It was the first New Zealand film to compete in this festival.
1992 The Film Commission presented John O’Shea with the first Lifetime Achievement Award for services to film. The New Zealand Film Archive launched the Last Film Search in an attempt to find and archive films. Seven thousand films were found.
1993 Jane Campion won the first New Zealand Oscar for best original screenplay for The Piano at the Academy Awards. Anna Paquin was the first New Zealander to win an Oscar for best supporting actress for the same film. Censorship legislation was combined in the Films, Videos and Publications Classifications Act.
1994 The Office of Film and Literature Classification was established under the Classifications Act. Lee Tamahori’s Once Were Warriors established a record by taking more than NZ$6 million at the box office.
1995 Actor Bruno Lawrence died suddenly. Cinema of Unease, Sam Neill’s iteration of the history of cinema in New Zealand, was released for the British Film Institute’s Century of Cinema series.
1996 New Zealand celebrated the Centenary of Cinema, and indicators of new interest in films continued to manifest. The Asia-Pacific Film Festival was held in Auckland, Waikato University held a New Zealand film conference, and the Moving Image Centre joined with the Film and Television Centre at Auckland University to host a conference on documentary film. Planet Man won the best short film award at the Cannes Film Festival Critics’ Week.
1997 Peter Jackson and Costa Botes released Forgotten Silver, a documentary about Colin Mackenzie, a New Zealand film pioneer who invented all kinds of film techniques, and who left the evidence in a lost city in New Zealand. The film was a total hoax, and resulted in the coining of the term “mockumentary” to describe such films.
1998 December: Centenary of filmmaking in New Zealand celebrated.
1999 What Becomes of the Broken Hearted won 11 prizes at the New Zealand Film Awards, including best director, best actor, best supporting actor, and best screenplay. December: The Last Film Search, the seven-year nation-wide search for films, ended.
2000 The Bank of New Zealand Traveling Film Show projected more than 90 free screenings of sound and silent films from the New Zealand Film Archive in the first five-month tour. Tours continued up to the present. 30 November–3 December: The New Zealand Film Archive and the Victoria University of Wellington hosted the 10th Conference of the History and Film Association of Australia and New Zealand.
2001 March: The New Zealand Film Archive announced plans to produce and circulate VHS video programs of films for use in schools to explore New Zealand history and heritage. July: Filmmaker John O’Shea died. November: The Rosier Fund was launched, dedicated to preserving early New Zealand film, particularly nitrate film.
2001-2003 December: The first film of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, was released. The sequels were released in December in 2002 and 2003. The films won huge international audiences and critical acclaim, and once again focused the world’s attention on New Zealand, especially as a tourist destination, but also as the country that successfully attempted one of the most ambitious projects in film history.
2002 January: The first director of the National Film Archive and film industry activist Jonathan Dennis died.
2003 Whale Rider blitzed the New Zealand Film Awards with nine prizes, including best feature film, best director, best actress, best supporting actor, and best supporting actress. The film won 13 awards internationally, including the humanities award and the cinema audience award at the Sundance Festival.