MovieFest Judges

MovieFest is all about getting your work about there in front of people, and part of that is our professional judges, who can provide some feedback on your movie... We've totally stoked to have a great team on board this year... Let us know what you think.

Judge Biographies

Miranda Harcourt

Miranda Harcourt is one of New Zealand's best known faces in the performing arts. Since graduating from Toi Whakaari she has explored all aspects of the performing arts, winning awards as an actor, a short film director and a stage director. She is also a drama-therapy graduate of the Central School in London, and has worked extensively with the deaf community, on self-devised theatre and with prison inmates on stage and screen.

Her long list of acting credits includes stage-work in all New Zealand's professional theatres (Verbatim, Arcadia, Skylight, A Doll's House, True), many series, dramas and documentaries on screen including Shortland St, Clare, Cover Story and most notoriously Gloss. Hers is a familiar voice on radio, and with her mother Dame Kate Harcourt, Miranda has toured all over the country with Flowers From my Mother's Garden, commissioned for the International Festival in 1998 and written by Stuart McKenzie and published by Penguin.

Voiceover, her first short film as a director, won Best Short Film at the NZ Film and Television Awards. At the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards in 1998 she won Best Production for Much Ado About Nothing, her first foray into stage directing. Since then she has directed at the Auckland Theatre Company, Downstage and Toi Whakaari.

She is perhaps best-known for her work with prison inmates on screen and stage in Verbatim, by William Brandt, co-devised by Brandt and herself, in which verbatim accounts of violent crime were knitted together in a searing 6-character monologue. Miranda has toured with Verbatim to prisons, theatres and festivals in the UK, the USA, Hong Kong and Australia, garnering rave reviews.

Miranda joined Toi Whakaari as Head of the Acting programme in 2001.

In 2002 Miranda was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (O.N.Z.M) in the Queen’s Birthday and Golden Jubilee Honours 2002. Miranda received this award for Services to Theatre and the Community.

Rosemary MacLeod

Rosemary is a Wellington-based nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, author and cartoonist.

Rosemary has previously worked in television as a comedy and drama scriptwriter, most notably as devisor, storyliner and main writer for Gloss, the award-winning 1980s drama series noted for its distinctive style and wit.

Rosemary has been a judge of the MovieFest competition since its inception in 2003.

Bryan Easte

Bryan has had an extensive experience in television and finished his career as a senior producer/director who was Head of Children’s Programming for TVNZ. He started his career in Australia before television started in New Zealand, initially with Channel 7 then he moved to Channel 9 before returning home to work with the NZBC in Auckland. He was responsible for the popular 1960's weekly country music show 'The Country Touch' and followed this launching the Auckland version of the regional magazine programme 'Town and Around'.