{"id":167172,"date":"2025-12-04T04:42:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T04:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/167172\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T04:42:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T04:42:05","slug":"jason-momoa-backs-luciane-buchanans-film-bidding-for-oscars-nod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/167172\/","title":{"rendered":"Jason Momoa backs Luciane Buchanan’s film bidding for Oscars nod"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hollywood heavyweight Jason Momoa has stepped in to back an Oscar-contending New Zealand Short film made by Tongan actress Luciane Buchanan, joining as Executive Producer. <\/p>\n

Buchanan, who previously co-starred with Momoa in Chief of War, announced the news this morning and told TVNZ it came about after she sent Momoa the film and a text message. <\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018No pressure, just putting it out there,'” Buchanan told Breakfast today. She wrote and stars in the short film. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an idea that came up and I was like, \u2018I don\u2019t want to do that to him!\u2019 But I got to the point where I thought he’s actually the perfect person for this role because he has his own insecurities with his connection to his culture and he got to explore that through making Chief of War. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he replied, \u2018I\u2019d love to! What can I do to support?’\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Luciane<\/p>\n

Luciane Buchanan and Jason Momoa previously teamed up on Chief of War. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Directed by award-winning Tongan\u2013NZ filmmaker Vea Mafile\u2019o, the short film Lea Tupu\u2019anga\/Mother Tongue premiered at the Sundance festival last year and has since collected multiple awards around the world. <\/p>\n

The story focuses on a young speech therapist, of Tongan and European heritage, who lies about her Tongan language skills to work with her first patient, a Tongan man with aphasia who can\u2019t speak English. <\/p>\n

\"Luciane<\/p>\n

Luciane Buchanan and Michael Falesiu in Lea Tupu\u2019anga\/Mother Tongue. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

Momoa said he was honoured to support Buchanan\u2019s vision and the team behind the film. \u201cPacific Islander stories carry a depth, spirit, and ancestral connection that deserve to be seen and celebrated. Luciane\u2019s work in Lea Tupu\u2019anga\/Mother Tongue is a beautiful example of that, honest, vulnerable, and rooted in heritage,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Lea Tupu\u2019anga officially qualified for the Live Action Short category for the Academy Awards. If selected as a finalist, it will be the first New Zealand nomination since Taika Waititi\u2019s, Two Cars, One Night short film in 2005. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a long shot,\u201d said Buchanan. \u201cAbout 200 films make it to this stage and there\u2019s a shortlist of 16 that we need to make. We\u2019re having screenings here in Los Angeles and having my bro Jason come on as EP is helping us so much,\u201d said Buchanan, who was born and brought up in New Zealand. <\/p>\n

\"Albert<\/p>\n

Albert Heimuli and Luciane Buchanan in Lea Tupu\u2019anga\/Mother Tongue. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is actually more universal than we thought. We took it around the world and met people of all cultures who could identify with the theme. So, it\u2019s pretty special. <\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we got the news about qualifying for the Oscars, we thought – we\u2019ve gotta try, at least.\u201d <\/p>\n

She says there were many factors that inspired her to tell the story. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a reflection of me and my grandmother and my grandfather and just how we learned to communicate without being able to speak. I couldn\u2019t speak Tongan and they couldn\u2019t speak English. It\u2019s just a love letter to them.\u201d <\/p>\n

Members of the Academy will vote on the Oscars shortlist next week with the final nominations set to be announced on January 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hollywood heavyweight Jason Momoa has stepped in to back an Oscar-contending New Zealand Short film made by Tongan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,409,111,139,69,2584],"class_list":["post-167172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-oscars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}