{"id":625939,"date":"2026-10-10T01:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T01:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/625939\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T01:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T01:26:09","slug":"my-maori-gothic-love-letter-to-our-land-the-feature-film-representing-nz-at-the-oscars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/625939\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;My M\u0101ori gothic love letter to our land&#8217;: The feature film representing NZ at the Oscars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">&#8220;To have it chosen to represent Aotearoa New Zealand is huge,&#8221; Stappard says.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I made this film to reclaim our history through a M\u0101ori lens: boldly, unapologetically and on our own terms. After seeing audiences around the world embrace M\u0101rama, I&#8217;m incredibly proud that this distinctly M\u0101ori story now has the chance to stand on the world stage.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Chief executive of the New Zealand Film Commission Annie Murray says the selection recognised the craft and ambition of Stappard&#8217;s filmmaking.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;M\u0101rama is fearless filmmaking: culturally grounded, cinematically ambitious and unmistakably from Aotearoa. Taratoa has brought a powerful M\u0101ori perspective to the screen with confidence and originality. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#8220;To have it chosen to represent Aotearoa New Zealand is huge,&#8221; Stappard says. &#8220;I made this film to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-625939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625939","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=625939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}