The New Zealand Film and Television School in Wellington will celebrate its 10th birthday on Saturday.
Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage Chris Finlayson will be guest speaker and will join students, graduates and members of the film industry in celebrating 10 years of achievement.
The Film School was established in Wellington in 2000 by a group of Wellington filmmakers including Robin Laing, Alun Bollinger and John Reid, concerned with the lack of practical training for those entering the film industry.
A charitable trust was formed, premises found, students recruited and a dream became reality.
Since then, more than 350 students have graduated from the school, many of whom have gone on to carve out careers within the industry, not only as technicians but also as writers, cinematographers, directors and producers.
This year a recent graduate, Juliet Bergh, and the school's technician, Jess Charlton, teamed up to work on an idea for a feature film, Existence. Last week their project was selected as one of four to be awarded the inaugural Escalator funding from the Film Commission which will give them $250,000 to make their film.
In the same week, a current student, Vanessa Simons, won a first Writer's Initiative from the commission, giving her funding and access to a mentor to help her complete her first feature script.
Saturday's celebrations will take place at the Film School, starting at 5pm.
