Sima Urale wins Tautai Award for Moana Excellence in the Screen Industry at Women in Film and Television New Zealand Awards
Faamalo and congratulations to Sima Urale, who has been awarded the inaugural Tautai Award for Moana Excellence in the Screen Industry at Women in Film and Television New Zealand (WIFT NZ) Awards.
Presented at a ceremony held on Friday 8 July, this award recognizes and honors the significant contribution of Moana Pasifika women working in the screen industry in Aotearoa New Zealand. Congratulations to all Ngaire Fuata, Lisa Taouma and Kerry Warkia who were nominated alongside Sima for this award.
Veteran filmmaker and tuakana Sima Urale is a powerhouse creative whose career spans acting, writing, directing and producing films, documentaries, TV commercials and music videos. Her debut short film O Tamaiti (1996) won best short at the Venice Film Festival, the Asia Pacific Screen Awards and the NZ Film & TV Awards, as well as a Silver Plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival.
Other films include Velvet Dreams (1997) which screened at the NZ and Hawaii film festivals and won Best Documentary Award at Canada's Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival, and Still Life (2001) which became the first New Zealand short to take the top award at the Montreal World Film Festival. She then directed Coffee and Allah (2007) and her first feature film Apron Strings (2008).
She is a mentor for emerging Tagata Moana filmmakers, a lecturer at Unitec’s Film & TV School, and was Head Tutor at the New Zealand Film & Television School in Wellington.
Sima has been the recipient of several international awards, as artist in residence at Hawaii University, McMillian Brown Center at Canterbury University, and the COCA arts residency at Massey University. In 2019 she was awarded an Arts Foundation Laureate, receiving the Burr/Tatham Trust Award. Her contributions to Pasifika filmmaking has made waves both in Aotearoa and around the world.