Give the year’s best New Zealand short films the homegrown recognition they deserve by voting for your favourite.

For this year’s New Zealand’s Best short film competition, Festival Director Marten Rabarts, Head of Programming Michael McDonnell, and Paris-based Programmer Sandra Reid viewed 78 submissions to make a shortlist of 12, from which director Tusi Tamasese selected these six finalists. A jury of three will select the winner of the $4,000 Creative New Zealand Best Short Film Prize and the $2,000 Madman Entertainment Emerging Talent Award, while the winner of an audience vote takes away the Audience Choice Award, consisting of 25 percent of the box office from this year’s online screenings. 

“Overall, these films illustrate and reveal a range of human experiences and emotions. They all had characters and stories I felt were different, unique and entrancing, and that I connected with because they explored aspects of humanity from interesting perspectives. From trapped minds and bodies to how people choose to live with the consequences of their choices, they deal with defining moments that weren’t always predictable.” — Tusi Tamasese