Seed 2025 Round Two
Judges Panel
Katherine Fry is a producer and script editor with a passion for developing bold, playful, and distinctive screen stories. Known for her empathetic and collaborative approach, she is committed to nurturing new voices and working closely with writers to shape projects into their strongest possible form. Her recent credits include White Fever (ABC), a critically acclaimed 6 x 30-minute comedy series which premiered in 2024. She is currently developing projects including Waylaid with Brodi Snook (Screenwest) and Sons of Samoa with Jeremiah Tauamiti and Sweetshop (NZFC). Katherine has held key development roles at Every Cloud Productions, the New Zealand Film Commission, and South Pacific Pictures, and is a recipient of Screen Australia’s Enterprise People initiative.
Katherine Fry
Katherine Fry is a producer and script editor with a passion for developing bold, playful, and distinctive screen stories. Known for her empathetic and collaborative approach, she is committed to nurturing new voices and working closely with writers to shape projects into their strongest possible form. Her recent credits include White Fever (ABC), a critically acclaimed 6 x 30-minute comedy series which premiered in 2024. She is currently developing projects including Waylaid with Brodi Snook (Screenwest) and Sons of Samoa with Jeremiah Tauamiti and Sweetshop (NZFC). Katherine has held key development roles at Every Cloud Productions, the New Zealand Film Commission, and South Pacific Pictures, and is a recipient of Screen Australia’s Enterprise People initiative.
Karol Griffiths is a development consultant, producer, script editor, writing coach and mentor with 20+ years of industry experience. Career highlights include working with the Coen Brothers, Steven Spielberg, Seth Macfarlane, Pamela Fryman, Steven Levitan, James Burrows, August Wilson, Lynda La Plante and many of the major studios and Indie production companies. Karol’s book, The Art of Script Editing: A Practical Guide to Script Development, is used as a textbook for writing and film programs and Universities around the world.
Karol Griffiths
Karol Griffiths is a development consultant, producer, script editor, writing coach and mentor with 20+ years of industry experience. Career highlights include working with the Coen Brothers, Steven Spielberg, Seth Macfarlane, Pamela Fryman, Steven Levitan, James Burrows, August Wilson, Lynda La Plante and many of the major studios and Indie production companies. Karol’s book, The Art of Script Editing: A Practical Guide to Script Development, is used as a textbook for writing and film programs and Universities around the world.
Christina Andreef has recently been in India coaching writers at the National Film Development Corporation’s Screenwriters Labs in Mumbai and Goa. She was Development Executive at the New Zealand Film Commission for 9 years, providing script and creative support to the Writers, Directors and Producers of Aotearoa. She was Development lead on many high profile NZ films including the new or recent: Big Girls Don’t Cry (Dir Paloma Schneiderman); Pike River (Dir Rob Sarkies); Caterpillar (Dir Chelsie Preston Crayford); The Rule of Jenny Pen (Dir James Ashcroft); Went Up The Hill (Dir Samuel Van Grinsven). An award-winning Writer/Director herself, she made films out of Sydney Australia which have screened at over 100 festivals worldwide; Excursion To The Bridge of Friendship – official selection Sundance and Cannes, The Gap - Sundance and Telluride, Shooting The Breeze - Sundance and Berlin. Her feature film Soft Fruit brought a fourth Sundance invitation and also screened in Critics’ Week in Cannes. Soft Fruit won the FIPRESCI prize in San Sebastian and AACTA Awards in Sydney.
Christina Andreef
Christina Andreef has recently been in India coaching writers at the National Film Development Corporation’s Screenwriters Labs in Mumbai and Goa. She was Development Executive at the New Zealand Film Commission for 9 years, providing script and creative support to the Writers, Directors and Producers of Aotearoa. She was Development lead on many high profile NZ films including the new or recent: Big Girls Don’t Cry (Dir Paloma Schneiderman); Pike River (Dir Rob Sarkies); Caterpillar (Dir Chelsie Preston Crayford); The Rule of Jenny Pen (Dir James Ashcroft); Went Up The Hill (Dir Samuel Van Grinsven). An award-winning Writer/Director herself, she made films out of Sydney Australia which have screened at over 100 festivals worldwide; Excursion To The Bridge of Friendship – official selection Sundance and Cannes, The Gap - Sundance and Telluride, Shooting The Breeze - Sundance and Berlin. Her feature film Soft Fruit brought a fourth Sundance invitation and also screened in Critics’ Week in Cannes. Soft Fruit won the FIPRESCI prize in San Sebastian and AACTA Awards in Sydney.
Hone Kouka (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Kahungunu) MNZM is an acclaimed Māori writer, producer and director for Theatre & Film , the youngest winner of the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award and a multi award winner. In 2004, Hone co-founded the production company, Tawata Productions, focusing on the development and presentation of new theatre and film by Māori and Pasifika artists. Hone became a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to Contemporary Māori Theatre in June 2009. In 2013 he was awarded the NZWG Mentors Award. Created in 2015, Hone is the Artistic Director/Chief Executive and founder of Kia Mau Festival, a Māori, Pasifika and Global Indigenous contemporary performance platform based in Te Ūpoko o te Ika a Māui. In 2017 he was awarded Wellingtonian of the Year - Arts Category. In 2022 Hone was an Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate Award winner.
Hone Kouka
Hone Kouka (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Kahungunu) MNZM is an acclaimed Māori writer, producer and director for Theatre & Film , the youngest winner of the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award and a multi award winner. In 2004, Hone co-founded the production company, Tawata Productions, focusing on the development and presentation of new theatre and film by Māori and Pasifika artists. Hone became a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to Contemporary Māori Theatre in June 2009. In 2013 he was awarded the NZWG Mentors Award. Created in 2015, Hone is the Artistic Director/Chief Executive and founder of Kia Mau Festival, a Māori, Pasifika and Global Indigenous contemporary performance platform based in Te Ūpoko o te Ika a Māui. In 2017 he was awarded Wellingtonian of the Year - Arts Category. In 2022 Hone was an Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate Award winner.
Seed & Seed Advanced Results Announcement Date:
December 19, 2025
Grant Recipients
Seed Recipients:
THE INTERVENTIONIST is an unsettling psychological thriller about the forces of control within families, and a woman's struggle to find her own voice against overwhelming powers.
Emily Perkins
The Interventionist
THE INTERVENTIONIST is an unsettling psychological thriller about the forces of control within families, and a woman's struggle to find her own voice against overwhelming powers.
When twin Samoan brothers are drafted into Australia's NRL system, their injured older sibling spirals. As opportunity collides with loss, one family confronts the unspoken weight Pacific sons carry for their families' survival.
Tuki Laumea
Tautua
When twin Samoan brothers are drafted into Australia's NRL system, their injured older sibling spirals. As opportunity collides with loss, one family confronts the unspoken weight Pacific sons carry for their families' survival.
Jazz, a young Samoan Fa'afafine escapes violent conversion therapy to find refuge at a Bullet Shop in Aotearoa, where she begins a stint of petty crime to fund her gender transition.
Tanu Gago
Shopping for Bullets
Jazz, a young Samoan Fa'afafine escapes violent conversion therapy to find refuge at a Bullet Shop in Aotearoa, where she begins a stint of petty crime to fund her gender transition.
Jazz, a young Samoan Fa'afafine escapes violent conversion therapy to find refuge at a Bullet Shop in Aotearoa, where she begins a stint of petty crime to fund her gender transition.
Moe Laga
Shopping for Bullets
Jazz, a young Samoan Fa'afafine escapes violent conversion therapy to find refuge at a Bullet Shop in Aotearoa, where she begins a stint of petty crime to fund her gender transition.
In 1964 rural New Zealand, a stifled housewife's world is upended when she falls into an all consuming sapphic love affair with her neighbour, forcing her to choose between the safety of her marriage and the freedom of living as her true self.
Keely Meechan
Danger is a Woman Named Sue
In 1964 rural New Zealand, a stifled housewife's world is upended when she falls into an all consuming sapphic love affair with her neighbour, forcing her to choose between the safety of her marriage and the freedom of living as her true self.
On a farm in rural New Zealand, a sharp-tongued widow battling dementia becomes convinced that a cow is the reincarnation of her dead husband, forcing her divisive family to reckon with her unravelling mind, buried secrets, and one very opinionated bovine.
Kate McGill
Tempered
On a farm in rural New Zealand, a sharp-tongued widow battling dementia becomes convinced that a cow is the reincarnation of her dead husband, forcing her divisive family to reckon with her unravelling mind, buried secrets, and one very opinionated bovine.
On a farm in rural New Zealand, a sharp-tongued widow battling dementia becomes convinced that a cow is the reincarnation of her dead husband, forcing her divisive family to reckon with her unravelling mind, buried secrets, and one very opinionated bovine.
Rutene Spooner
Tempered
On a farm in rural New Zealand, a sharp-tongued widow battling dementia becomes convinced that a cow is the reincarnation of her dead husband, forcing her divisive family to reckon with her unravelling mind, buried secrets, and one very opinionated bovine.
Dick, a young man who can't die, navigates an absurd deadpan anti-rom-com with his violent hitman situationship, Mia.
Quinn Wilson
It's Not About You*
Dick, a young man who can't die, navigates an absurd deadpan anti-rom-com with his violent hitman situationship, Mia.
When a Kiwi/Filipino rugby prodigy in a small Bay of Plenty town secretly takes up dance to heal from injury, he's forced to choose between the game that defines him and the art that frees him & discovering that true strength lies in balance.
Harry Oram
Kick/Step
When a Kiwi/Filipino rugby prodigy in a small Bay of Plenty town secretly takes up dance to heal from injury, he's forced to choose between the game that defines him and the art that frees him & discovering that true strength lies in balance.
Seed Advanced Recipients:
A bankrupt ex-cop's attempt to blackmail a former friend with a guilty secret goes disastrously wrong when the woman they raped 25 years ago gate-crashes a dinner party with their wives to force a reckoning.
The Wives
A bankrupt ex-cop's attempt to blackmail a former friend with a guilty secret goes disastrously wrong when the woman they raped 25 years ago gate-crashes a dinner party with their wives to force a reckoning.
THE INTERVENTIONIST is an unsettling psychological thriller about the forces of control within families, and a woman's struggle to find her own voice against overwhelming powers.
The Interventionist
THE INTERVENTIONIST is an unsettling psychological thriller about the forces of control within families, and a woman's struggle to find her own voice against overwhelming powers.
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