South Shorts 2024 is open for applications!

If you are a new or emerging filmmaker with a connection to South Auckland, don’t miss out on this extraordinary opportunity to advance your screenwriting abilities in 2024.

During this six-month mentorship programme, successful applicants attend a series of one-day hubs and are led through focused script development under the guidance of Briar Grace-Smith. Briar brings considerable experience and knowledge to the room for group mentorship, and each participant also gets one-on-one feedback. The hub days involve script read-throughs, writing exercises, and hearing from guest speakers about their experiences making films. On completion of the programme, you will leave with new skills and tools to develop your work, a great new network of like-minded practitioners, and a completed short film script.

This initiative is intended for people who live in South Auckland or are connected to the South Auckland community – maybe you grew up there, have whānau there, or feel connected to the community in some other way. This opportunity will help you to develop your story, share your unique perspective, and develop your career as a screenwriter within a supportive framework.

Applications for the 2024 South Shorts Mentorship Programme are open now.

Opens: Wednesday 7th February 2024
Closes: 1:00 PM Monday 25th March 2024
Notification of outcome: Early May 2024

“South Shorts has helped me with overcoming writers block and given me the confidence to present my ideas in a safe creative space. The connections I have made throughout the hubs are life changing and extremely valuable for my career moving forward. I would highly recommend these workshops to any filmmaker out there looking to develop their ideas and build connections with fellow likeminded creatives.”
  
– Kaitiaki Rodger, South Shorts 2023 Participant 
To apply you will need to submit: 
  • Short biography (300-word limit)
  • Why would this programme be valuable to you? (300-word limit)
  • Summarise your connection to South Auckland
  • Short film logline (One to two sentences summarising your short film concept – what and who is it about?)
  • Synopsis of your short film idea (600-word limit)
  • Script or written document for your short film idea (optional)
Eligibility:
  • Must be connected to South Auckland
  • Aged 17+  

 

Briar Grace-Smith is of Ngā Puhi descent and a writer of short fiction, stage plays and feature films. Her plays include Ngā Pou Wāhine, Purapurawhetū and When Sun and Moon Collide. She is an Arts Foundation Laureate and was recently made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to film, television and theatre. She has worked as a Development Executive for the New Zealand Film Commission and taught ‘Writing for Theatre’ at IIML (2015). Briar is a Sundance alumni and the writer of the feature films The Strength of Water and Fresh Meat. Her television credits include Fishskin Suit, Being Eve, Kaitangata Twitch and the Australian children’s television series, Grace Beside Me (2017). She was a director and co-writer of the short film, Nine of Hearts, and wrote and directed Charm for the feature project Waru (2017). She collaborated with Toi Whakaari, directing Krystal, a short film by Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu. She was the screenwriter and co-director of the feature film Cousins, and is a writer and co-director of Rūrangi, Series 2. Briar was made a member of the Directors branch of the Academy in 2022.

This programme is reliant on funding being achieved. Applicants will be informed of the funding outcome prior to the South Shorts submission deadline on the 25th of March.

The South Shorts Mentorship Programme is made possible thanks to generous support from Foundation North.

 

 

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