To be an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit: WINSTANLEY Ms Chelsea Jane
For services to the screen industry and Māori
Ms Chelsea Winstanley (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi te Rangi) is an award-winning film and television producer and director who has championed indigenous voices onscreen, operating her production company This Too Shall Pass.
Since 2005 Ms Winstanley has produced a range of film and television projects showcasing Māori arts practitioners, including Heperi Mita’s directorial debut ‘Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen’. She worked with Mereta Mita, the first Māori woman to direct a feature film in New Zealand, working to complete the project when Mita died mid-production. She made her directorial debut as one of eight writer/directors on the portmanteau film ‘Waru’, which screened at Toronto International Film Festival. She has produced award-winning short films including ‘Night Shift’ and ‘Meathead’, feature film ‘What We Do in the Shadows’, one of New Zealand’s highest grossing films, and is one of the New Zealand producers of ‘Night Raiders’, an indigenous New Zealand-Canada co-production which premiered in 2021. She has developed extensive networks among international indigenous filmmakers. She was the first indigenous female producer to be nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award with Taika Waititi’s ‘Jojo Rabbit’. Ms Winstanley has championed presenting indigenous stories in their own language and is a producer behind the successful te reo Māori versions of Disney’s ‘Moana’, ‘Lion King’ and ‘Frozen’.
AWARDS
Kea World Class New Zealander Award, 2021
New Zealand Film Commission, Te Aupounamu Māori Screen Excellence Award, 2018
New Zealand Women in Film and Television, Mana Wahine Award, 2015
To be an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
URLWIN, Ms Anne June 37J Lakeside Road Wanaka 9305
