From Hastings to the Big Screen: Hawke’s Bay Filmmakers Take Their Place at Big Screen Symposium
A scholarship, a locally made feature film and a national screen skills programme all came together at one of Aotearoa’s most important screen industry gatherings.
The Big Screen Symposium 2026, presented by Script to Screen, brought together filmmakers, producers, writers, funders, industry leaders and emerging practitioners from across Aotearoa for two days of kōrero, connection, learning and debate.
Held on 3–4 July at Te Pūtahi Mātauranga | The Faculty of Arts and Education at the University of Auckland, the symposium is now in its twelfth iteration and has become one of the key events on the New Zealand screen industry calendar. For Screen Hawke’s Bay, this year’s event was particularly exciting because the region was represented not just through attendance, but through people, projects and ideas that are helping shape the future of screen in Aotearoa. Among them was Hawke’s Bay filmmaker Cosmo Calman, who attended through a scholarship provided by Screen Hawke’s Bay. And on the programme itself was Screen Hawke’s Bay Chair Daniel Betty, who joined the panel Independent Together: Making Features Outside Traditional Funding and contributed to the kōrero around workforce development through Kahurangi Toi Ātea.
The Big Screen Symposium is a place for the screen community to come together for two days of kōrero, connection and wānanga — celebrating the diversity of voices and perspectives within the industry while exploring the future of screen storytelling in Aotearoa. Across the two days, participants could choose from keynotes, masterclasses, panel discussions, case studies, round tables, industry meetings and plenaries covering everything from developing screen IP and international opportunities to sustainability, artificial intelligence, documentary, comedy, animation, cultural integrity, financing and workforce capability.
The programme featured a keynote from Cliff Curtis, sessions with filmmakers including James Ashcroft, Pietra Brettkelly, Briar Grace-Smith, Vea Mafile’o, Kiel McNaughton and Chelsie Preston Crayford, and conversations involving major industry organisations including the New Zealand Film Commission, NZ On Air, Te Māngai Pāho and Regional Film Offices of New Zealand. There was also a strong focus on the future of the workforce — including the session Understanding & Cultivating Capacity, which brought together Fairooz Samy, Tayla Hancock, Aperahama Simcock, Daniel Betty, Victoria Dabbs and Emma Slade.
For an emerging filmmaker from Hawke’s Bay, it was an opportunity to step directly into the national conversation.
Screen Hawke’s Bay provided a scholarship for Cosmo Calman to attend the symposium, covering his transport, accommodation and conference ticket. Cosmo is a Hawke’s Bay filmmaker, technician, tutor and dad who is developing his own screen stories while working across the creative and technical sides of the industry. For him, getting to Auckland was about much more than attending a conference. It was about finding his place in the wider filmmaking community. As Cosmo explains, he arrived with a mixture of excitement, nerves and perhaps a little unrealistic ambition.
“In all honesty; and naive delusion, I’d hoped to give one of my screenplays to Cliff Curtis, perhaps The Dark Horse could bring one of my greatest stories to life?!”
Seeing so many established filmmakers he admired initially had the opposite effect to what he had hoped.
“I got a bit nervous seeing a few big names I’d admired around the building and crawled into a far-fetched lonely corner on the first day… Must be a writer huh?”
But filmmaking, like so much of life, is often about finding the people who help you step outside your comfort zone. For Cosmo, that came through another filmmaker, Tajim. By the second day, Cosmo had changed his approach.
“I just let go of any expectations and just be chill, just talk, just hang, and it’s funny how many other people feel exactly the same.”
After two days of panels, conversations, industry meetings and encounters with filmmakers from across the country, Cosmo’s biggest takeaway wasn’t a secret funding formula or a magic pathway into the industry. It was much simpler. “Just go shoot something.” As Cosmo puts it: “You only find your voice when you speak, you only get better when you’re in those tough spots.” And his advice to other emerging filmmakers is equally direct:
“You want to be a better filmmaker? Pick up that camera and go. Rinse and repeat, until the repetitions become that attuned of an athlete.”
It is an attitude that sits comfortably alongside what Screen Hawke’s Bay is trying to encourage across the region — creating opportunities for people to make work, build experience, meet others and keep going. Cosmo’s final reflection perhaps captures the value of the scholarship better than anything:
“It doesn’t have to be pretty and perfect, that comes with time, and I’m by no means there myself.”
That is precisely why access to events like the Big Screen Symposium matters. Emerging filmmakers don’t necessarily need to arrive with all the answers. Sometimes they simply need the opportunity to be in the room.
Screen Hawke’s Bay Chair Daniel Betty was also at the symposium, participating in the Independent Together panel alongside Matt Hicks, Tom Levesque and Eva Trebilco.
The session explored making features outside traditional funding, a particularly relevant conversation for independent filmmakers and regional screen practitioners. Daniel was able to bring a very practical perspective to the conversation through his experience producing and starring in the locally made feature WHAT LIES BETWEEN.
The psychological thriller, written and directed by James J. Cleary and produced by James Cleary and Daniel Betty, was filmed in Hawke’s Bay and Auckland, with much of the production taking place in locations around Patoka, Waipukurau and Maraetotara.
For Daniel, the experience of attending the symposium reinforced the importance of independent filmmakers telling their own stories — and finding new ways to get those stories made.
“Independent filmmaking is about finding a way to get the work made, even when the traditional pathways aren’t always available. WHAT LIES BETWEEN showed us that you can build something from the ground up, use the relationships you have around you and create a film that is genuinely connected to place.”
The film itself is a strong example of what can happen when a regional creative community comes together. It used local locations, local crew and local talent, demonstrating that a feature film can be developed and produced from Hawke’s Bay. And importantly, the film has now moved beyond its regional beginnings and into the wider festival and exhibition landscape.
Daniel’s presence at the symposium also connected with another major focus of the 2026 programme: building workforce capability. Daniel joined Victoria Dabbs, Emma Slade, Fairooz Samy, Tayla Hancock and Aperahama Simcock for the session Understanding & Cultivating Capacity – Initiatives to shape workforce capability.
This is an area where Hawke’s Bay is already taking significant steps through Kahurangi Toi Ātea – the National Screen Skills Training Programme. Kahurangi Toi Ātea is an industry-led programme that combines classroom learning with practical, paid experience on real screen productions. Participants learn specific departmental skills from working professionals and then have the opportunity to apply those skills on set.
The programme was developed by Share the Knowledge and co-developed with Toi Mai Workforce Development Council and Te Wānanga Whare Tapere o Takitimu. In 2026–27, the programme is being supported by NZ On Air and Netflix, with up to 45 participants completing training and up to 12 gaining paid on-set placements on two New Zealand series productions.
Daniel says this kind of investment is fundamental to creating a sustainable regional screen industry.
“If we want productions to come to Hawke’s Bay, we need to be able to say more than ‘we have incredible locations’. We need to say that we have people who are ready to work, who understand the demands of production and who are developing the skills to step into professional roles.”
“Kahurangi Toi Ātea is about creating that pathway — giving people the knowledge, the mentoring and, most importantly, the opportunity to gain real experience on set.”
That philosophy was echoed throughout the symposium. The future of screen isn’t just about attracting productions. It’s about building the people who will make them.
Find out more
Big Screen Symposium 2026 — presented by Script to Screen, with the 2026 event held at the University of Auckland on 3–4 July.
Kahurangi Toi Ātea — the National Screen Skills Training Programme.
Screen Hawke’s Bay — connecting productions with Hawke’s Bay locations, crew, communities and screen opportunities.
WHAT LIES BETWEEN — the locally produced Hawke’s Bay feature film from Daniel Betty and James J. Cleary.