2010 HOME BY CHRISTMAS
Producer/Director

A true story of love, war and secrets.

BEST ACTOR: Tony Barry, Quantas Screen Awards, 2010

BEST SOUNDTRACK: Quantas Screen Awards, 2010

WINNER: 3rd place popular vote Sydney Film Festival 2010

BEST ACTOR: Highly Commended, Tony Barry, Asia Pacific Screen Awards, 2010

HISTORY MAKERS AWARDS: New York, 2011 Finalist: Best Drama

Feature 90mins 35mm Dolby Stereo

Gaylene Preston Productions

2008 LOVELY RITA - A painters life
Producer/Director

Rita Angus uncompromisingly stood alone among her generation. Surrounded by secrecy even after her death, at last her story can be told.

IN COMPETITION: DOCNZ, 2007

**** A lively and loving look at one of our cultural icons

SUNDAY STAR TIMES

Documentary 70mins

Gaylene Preston Productions for TVone/NZOA

2007 THE TIME OF OUR LIVES
Producer/Director

On the road to the London Memorial, thirty two veterans have a marvellous time while reflecting on the battles, absent friends and the terrible cost of war.

BEST POPULAR DOCUMENTARY: Qantas Television Awards, 2007

Documentary 45mins
Gaylene Preston Productions for TV3/NZOA

2006 EARTHQUAKE
Producer/Director

Eyewitness accounts of New Zealand's most leathal earthquake in modern times. A documentary of loss and survival and of lives changed forever, told by people who thought their world was ending.

BEST SOUND: Air NZ Screen Awards, 2006

FINALIST: 4 categories including Best Director Air NZ Screen Awards 2006

BEST POPULAR DOCUMENTARY: Qantas Awards, 2006

Documentary 44mins

Gaylene Preston Productions in Assn with TV3/NZOA

2005 PUSH PLAY – The Activator
Director

For Sport and Recreation New Zealand Promoting physical exercise through activation.

Commercials 5 x 30 sec

Pearl Productions and Y & R Advertising

2004 LANDS OF OUR FATHERS – My African legacy
Executive Producer

(Producer/Director Jennifer Bush Daumec)

Opening an old leather suitcase compels a New Zealand filmmaker to revisit her Rhodesian childhood and reconcile herself with the effects of the colonial past.

Documentary 70mins digibeta

Bushcraft in Assn with Gaylene Preston Productions

2003 PERFECT STRANGERS
Writer/Director/Producer
The dangerous deception of desire. A chilling romance.

BEST FILM: Female Eye Festival, Toronto, 2005
BEST ACTRESS: Rachael Blake, Fantasporto Film Festival, Portugal, 2004
BEST ACTRESS: Rachael Blake, Vladivostok Film Festival, 2004
One of the years best films, stylish, funny and disturbing...a genuine original

Evan Williams THE AUSTRALIAN
Gaylene Preston's generally taut and well directed pic is her best work in film to date

David Stratton VARIETY

Feature 100mins widescreen 35mm colour

Gaylene Preston Productions

2002 COFFEE, TEA OR ME?
Producer

(Director/Producer Brita McVeigh)
The surprising tale of the underestimated trollydolly.
SELECTED: NZ International Film Festival, Sydney, Melbourne, Vancouver

Documentary 70mins Beta SP

Gaylene Preston Productions

2001 TITLESS WONDERS
Producer/Director

Emotional journeys after a breast cancer diagnosis.

PREMIER AWARD: NZ Media Peace Awards, 2001

SELECTED: NZ International Film Festival 2001

Keynote presentation World Breast Cancer Symposium 2002

A compelling mixture of poetry and pragmatism

Irene Gardiner

72mins Beta SP

Gaylene Preston Productions

2001 WAHINE REQUIEM

Semi-permanent cinema installation for Wellington Museum of City and Sea.

12mins

1999 GETTING TO OUR PLACE
Producer/Director (with Anna Cottrell)
A fly-on-the-wall behind the scenes look at the remarkably bumpy road to Te Papa.

SELECTED: NZ Film Festival 1999

72mins

Gaylene Preston Productions

1999 PUNITIVE DAMAGE
Producer

(Director/Producer Annie Goldson)
The true story of a death in Timor and the power of a mother's grief.
SILVER MEDIANET: Munich Film Festival Awards
BEST DOCUMENTARY: 2nd place Sydney Film Festival Awards
SELECTED: Critics Week Locarno International Documentary Festival
Packs more punch than most Hollywood blockbusters

CONTACT MAGAZINE

Feature 78mins 35mm Colour

Occasional Productions in Assn with Gaylene Preston Productions

1998 SURVIVOR STORIES
Producer/Director

Semi-permanent cinema installation

For the Hawkes Bay Culture Trust

The Napier Earthquake of 1931 remembered.

36mins glass laser disc

1997 PARALLEL PATHS
Director

3 Television commercials for the Land Transport Safety Authority.
WINNER: Outstanding creativity for direction Silver Mobius Awards

Sacchi & Saatchi/Flying Fish

1996 NO OTHER LIPS
Director/Co-Producer
A portrait of Maori poet, Hone Tuwhare.

SELECTED: NZ International Film Festival 1996
Gaylene Preston has fashioned a shrewdly appreciative portrait

Bill Gosden NZ FILM FESTIVAL

Documentary 46mins

Greenstone Pictures in Assn with Gaylene Preston Productions

1995 ABSENT FRIENDS
Television commercials for the Land Transport Safety Authority.
WINNER: Gold Axis Award 1996
WINNER: Silver Clio 1997

Saatchi & Saatchi/Flying Fish

1995 WAR STORIES Our Mothers Never Told Us
Producer/Director

Seven New Zealand women share stories of love and loss during the Second World War.
BEST FILM: NZ Film & TV Awards, 1995
MOST POPULAR FILM: Sydney Film Festival, 1995
BEST DOCUMENTARY: Sydney Film Festival, 1995

Selected for the foreign film premier season Los Anglese 1996 by the friends of the American Film Archive
A rich universal experience

Kevin Thomas L.A. TIMES

Feature 94mins 35mm Dolby Stereo

Gaylene Preston Productions

1993 BREAD AND ROSES
Director/Co-writer/Associate Producer
A four-part mini-series for television based on the autobiography of Sonja Davies.
BEST ACTRESS: NZ Film & TV Awards, 1994

BEST ACTRESS: NZ Film & TV Awards, 1994

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: NZ Film & TV Awards, 1994

BEST DESIGN: NZ Film & TV Awards, 1994
3rd PLACE POULAR VOTE: Melbourne Film Festival, 1994
In the 'kill to watch' category ... faultlessly directed

Neil Jillet MELBOURNE AGE

200mins 16mm colour

Preston Laing Productions

1992 MARRIED
Director

Part of Anthology Drama Series.

SELECTED: Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch International Film Festivals

50mins 16mm colour

Meridian Film Productions

1990 RUBY & RATA
Director/Co-Producer
An old lady, a would be rock singer and a delinquent child – with more in common than they realise. A comedy/drama
WINNER: Best Editing, Best Film Score, Best Contribution to a Soundtrack, Best Male Performance, NZ Film & TV Awards
WINNER: Best Feature, 3rd Place-Popular Choice, Sydney & Melbourne Film Festivals
GOLD MEDAL AWARD: Giffoni Children's Film Festival, Italy
POPULAR VOTE: Top 10 Toronto Film Festival
Preston and her team have woven a special kind of Kiwi magic in this one – I'd crawl over broken glass to see it again – and again Peter Calder NZ HERALD

Feature 102mins 35mm colour

Preston Laing Productions

1987 KAI PURAKAU - The Story Teller
Producer/Director
A documentary for Thames Television (UK) on Booker Prize winning writer Keri Hulme.

SELECTED: New Zealand International Film Festival

Documentary 27mins 16mm colour

Gaylene Preston Productions

1985 MR WRONG (aka DARK OF THE NIGHT - USA)

Director/Producer/Co-writer

A genre bending thriller about a young woman who buys a haunted car. Based on a short story by Elizabeth Jane Howard.
BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE: NZ Film & TV Awards
2eme PRIX DU PUBLIC: Festival de Films de Femmes de Creteil, 1986
A dandy little thriller marked by excellent performances

Judith Crist

87mins 35mm colour

Preston Laing Productions

1983 PATU
Co-ordinator

Merata Mita's feature-length documentary about the protest against the Springbok tour of New Zealand (1981).

Documentary 85 mins 16mm

Awatea Films

1982 MAKING UTU
Producer/Director
A documentary about the making of Geoff Murphy's feature-film UTU, looking at the issues involved in exploring New Zealand's racial past.

Documentary 48mins 16mm colour

Gaylene Preston Productions

1981 HOLD UP
Director/Co-Producer/Screenplay

A deaf dress designer, a blind radio announcer and a film critic with cerebal palsey, witness the robbery of a cinema.

WINNER: Best Overseas Film for under 12year-olds Australian Teachers of Media 1983

WINNER: Best Overseas Film Rehabilitation Film Festival New York 1983

WINNER: First Prize Dramatisation Category Rehabilitation International World Congress Lisbon 1984

24mins 16mm colour

Gibson Films/Gaylene Preston Productions

1980 LEARNING FAST
Producer/Director

A documentary about seven small town seventeen year olds leaving school and with difficulty finding their place in the world.

A classic Documentary. Excellent, Preston shows a deft touch

THE DOMINION

48mins 16mm colour

Gaylene Preston Productions

1978 ALL THE WAY UP THERE
Director/Producer

Bruce Burgess, physically disabled since birth, and Graeme Dingle, a well-known mountaineer, climb Mt Ruapehu together.
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE: Banff Festival of Mountain Films, 1980
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE: Festival International du Film Alpine Les Diaberets, 1980

BLUE RIBBON: American Film Festival, 1979

27mins 16mm colour

Valhalla Films