NZ Film Awards, been & gone

Yes, sometimes the life of a actor/performer, can take you to strange places!!! As you can see in the photo above ( thats me on the right and my mate/director, Amarbir Singh, on the left. We shot a music video with me running around dowtown Auckland like that!, I also played a parking warden. It was for a great kiwi band called Kitsch. Anyway lets get on with the blog...
Well there ya bloody go eh! The NZ Screen Directors Guild Screen Awards, this year known as the "Air New Zealand Screen Awards", have been handed out for another year. In fact it's only the second year they have been handed out, in their current form. As I have stated previously, for many years the New Zealand film industry has not been able to create an awards event that would last more than a few years, before it would slide or implode into oblivion. Highlighting the sad arse nature of it all was that no one ( other than a few industry folk ) cared.
However, since we as a nation got used to watching on tele as fellow new zealanders walked up to collect arms full of Oscars for their genius in creating Peter Jacksons vision that was Lord OF The Rings, the concept of our own film awards is a little more tangible.
So last thursday 24th August, 700 of us gathered at the appointed venue and time, we threw back a good fill of beverages on offer and then settled in for the three and a half hour parade.
Local lad Oliver Driver was once again the host (he is our Billy Crystal, and now hosts pretty much anything with an award involved, and he's bloody good at it),
It is a bit of a shame that these gigs tend to start with the best bit,... the comedy routine by the host,...and then the rest of the night rapidly settles into a monotone pace, begging for someone to haul out a bagfull of energy to the stage. Understand,..there are 47 awards to be given out!!! Despite Oliver presenting a very funny and reasoned demo in the art of speaking in to mic, at the start, almost none of the award presenters or recipients raised their voices above a half heard mist of self imposed humility. Bloody hell it is fascinating to observe. These are people who make their livings in the entertainment industry! I guess it bears out the fact that whenever surveys are conducted about peoples fears, ...public speaking emerges as the regular numero uno, even more feared than death itself. Without wanting to pour cold vomit on the winners flame,..it seemed like some of them were dead..ish! Mind you I must admit a big part of the problem could have been solved by having a decent podium set up. Maybe it was the designers first job since Lord Of The Rings, as the podium was exactly the right height for a hobbit. The fact that Olly Driver, the host, is 7' tall meant the microphones came to his knees,... and yet he could be heard. Now thats good projection for you!
All of that aside it was a bloody good night, great finger food,.. food for eating using your fingers ( and that bloody handy opposable thumb , not food made of fingers, lots of free flowing beverages, many "hiii, haven't seen you for ages, what are you up to?" type conversations, you know the ones, not too taxing, as despite the questions being asked, the answers are not really being listened to!!!
It all ended in another bar with a some dancing, so a great night was had. Now here are some results just in case you were wondering...who...what...etc.
Best Actor... Anthony Hopkins for Worlds Fastest Indian. Of course Anthony was not there, but did anyone think to create the best gag of the night and have me accept his award on his behalf??? ....after all I'm Bruce Hopkins, I could have said siomething really funny like,.."uncle Tony asked me to tell you...." all in a thick New York Italian accent (which I happen to do very well, even better than my south african accent,... which is shit!)...ah well opportunity lost!
Best actress... Ruby Dee, for her role in No. 2, a wonderful local tale adpated from a stage play that was hugely successful and introduced the phenomenally talented local actor Madeleine Sami, to the world. In the stage play No. 2 Madeleine played the entire cast, something like 12 or so totally individual characters.

Anyway, for a look at photos from the evening check out the link below. I will just fill you in though, you will go to a photo of me first...why not!!!... bloody hell it's my blog!, An explanation might be in order, in the photo I have a polystyrene cup in my hand, not exactly A list, but they would not let us take glass into the theatre, so we had to transfer to the poly cups, and I was not leaving my grog behind! There are shots of Karl Urban for all you Urbanites out there as well as some of the other LOTR folk who were present ( Grant Major, Michael Hedge etc . Anyway for a look click here.
Clicking on the photos will bring up the names of the people you are looking at.

Before I head out of here, a couple of things, i saw a live show on the weekend called "The Nature Of Wishing" in the cast was my kids Mum, Felicity. We were in professional dance companies together many years back, thats how we met, 3 kids, a divorce and years later we continue to operate as a family, just one where mum and dad are not married or living together. So I went to see the show because she was in it. What a wonderful surprise. It was basically physical theatre, fused with dance theatre. A really delightful show, that was such a relief from the standard talking head theatre we get served up so often. I think Shakespeare was a genius and his words are still stunning when read, or when you watch someone like the brilliant Steven Berkoff do his thing in a solo show, playing the villians of Shakespeare... have a look at his website, he is truely one of the most inspiring performers of our time!!! ( I got to work on a project recently that Steven played a significant role in, altough I never got to meet him...damn.. can't say anymore, top secret-I'd have to kill you if i did say anything!.
Anyway, I am now tiring of going to theatre and having to sit there while actors regurgitate words written by sometimes gifted writers. I would say about 90% of the shows I see are directed by totally bland directors who just happen to have got into the "directing" scene and who often seem to completely lack their own vision. Sooo....back to "The Nature Of Wishing", the show my kids Mum was in. It was such a fresh breathe of air, fantastic.
While I'm talking live theatre, why not show off, here are a couple of photos from a show I did with my mates Mike Mizrahi and mari Adams at the International Festival in Wellington in March this year





late beaking news....just got a call from a journalist at National Radio (sort of like our BBC or PBS), I was aksed to give my reaction to an announcement that the national TV broadcaster TVNZ and the govt funding agency, New Zealand On Air, have committed to funding and broadcasting a new 1/2 hr early evening soap! New opportunities for work have got to be good, now lets see what the contracts are like!!!
All right I'm gone, you be cool, always make room for love in your heart (and I don't mean the between the bedsheets sort,..well maybe some of that as well!). see ya soon.

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