Taika Waititi's 2010 comedy Boy was voted New Zealand's second best movie of all time.

A comprehensive survey of New Zealand’s best movies reveals the story of our national cinema and cultural identity. Charlie Gates reports on the greatest Kiwi films ever made.





Lee Tamahori's gritty 1994 classic Once Were Warriors was voted New Zealand's best movie of all time.

What is the best New Zealand film of all time? It’s a question we asked the nation in a poll conducted by Fairfax Media and the answers said much about the country, its culture and the story of our national cinema.





The voting shows how New Zealand cinema exploded in the late 1970s and early 1980s with a string of punchy and energetic B-movies; matured into prestigious arthouse films that took on the world in the mid-90s; then developed into an international production hub at the turn of the century, with occasional homegrown hits breaking through, but no sense of a broad cinematic movement.





By looking at the way people voted across the top 50 films, we can see when the Kiwi film industry enjoyed its greatest and most productive periods. Rather than a single golden age in New Zealand film-making, there appears to be a series of golden waves.





The earliest film in the top 50 is from 1977, while the most recent is from 2012. (When a film is mentioned below, its position in the top 50 will be included in brackets after the title.)





The spread of votes show the first golden wave arrived in 1977 and lasted until about 1986. These are the films that defined a national cinema and discovered an enthusiastic domestic audience for the first time.





The godfather of this first wave was film director Roger Donaldson, who started the movement in 1977 with Sleeping Dogs (11) and consolidated his early success with Smash Palace (9) in 1981. His films were followed by a string of lively box office hits in the early 1980s.





The hero of this new age was Geoff Murphy, the only director with more than one film in the top 10. The anarchic, thrilling and energetic films he made in the early 1980s have endured and even grown in stature since their release. Goodbye Pork Pie (4), Utu 8) and The Quiet Earth (10) are all now considered Kiwi classics. Utu was restored and re-released as Utu Redux just last year, winning over the Kiwi critics who were not convinced on its original 1983 release.





This first wave of success also introduced New Zealand to the more arthouse flavour of Vincent Ward, with his debut feature Vigil (19) in 1984.





The voting pattern shows that this first wave began to dwindle in the mid 1980s and perhaps the last major success of this era was animated classic Footrot Flats (13) in 1986.





Many of the films from this period were partially state funded, but many were made with funding attracted by a tax incentive, including Utu and The Quiet Earth. It was the cancellation of this tax incentive in 1986 that partly spelt the end of this first boom.





Near the end of this first golden age, in 1985, The Dominion Post’s sister newspaper, The Press, ran a story about Hollywood looking for a ‘‘breakthrough film – the film that will do for New Zealand what Picnic at Hanging Rock and Last Wave did for Australian film-makers; the film that will alert the United States (and Time magazine) to the commercial value of Kiwi cinema’’.





The story refers to a snooty New York Times review of Came a Hot Friday (16) that buried its commercial chances in the United States. ‘‘The newest movie from that far-away country, it is not likely to elevate it to the pantheon of cinema,’’ the review stated.





New Zealand reviews of films from this first wave are rather more generous, expressing an astonishment that a Kiwi movie can be as good as the American competition. Films are often reviewed with the headline: ‘‘Best Kiwi film yet’’.





While Murphy and Donaldson pursued opportunities in Hollywood as film work dried up in their home country, the New Zealand film industry would wait nearly a decade for that major international breakthrough film.





Jane Campion’s The Piano ushered in a second wave of New Zealand success in 1993, winning international praise and awards, including the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival and three Oscars.





The grungy and vivacious B-movies of the early 80s gave way to lush, challenging and arty dramas.





The following year, both Lee Tamahori’s Once Were Warriors (1) and Sir Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures (5) enjoyed critical and commercial success at home and abroad.





It was a breakthrough period for Jackson, who moved on from the glorious splatter fests of the early 1990s to become one of the world’s most successful and popular directors. The survey results cement his status as the most famous and loved director in the country. Jackson has 11 movies in the top 50, compared to three each for Donaldson and Murphy, and two each for Robert Sarkies, Jane Campion and Taika Waititi.





A sign of the Kiwi film industry’s growing confidence in the mid-90s can be seen in Jackson’s decision to remain in his home country, rather than follow Donaldson and Murphy to Hollywood.





‘‘I have no reason to go there. I can do everything I want to here. As a film-maker, I strongly value my independence and ability to develop and produce my own films, rather than be a director for hire,’’ he said in 1994.





But this second wave was short-lived, fading in just two years. It has not been matched since. As New Zealand became well known internationally as a production powerhouse at the turn of the century, the national cinema suffered.





Occasional hits broke through on their own terms. Whale Rider (3) in 2002, In My Father’s Den (7) in 2004, Robert Sarkies’ Out of the Blue (14) in 2006 and Boy (2) in 2010 were all critical and box office hits that attracted international attention.





But there was no sense of a recognisable movement and the international blockbusters made in Wellington during this period, such as Avatar, Tintin and The Hobbit, may provide jobs for the industry, but are not discernibly of New Zealand and its culture.





Geoff Murphy, who was first assistant director on the Lord of the Rings movies, compares the Wellywood movement to the manufacture of handbags.





‘‘Those films have nothing to do with New Zealand’s national cinema. It has as much to do with Pork Pie and all the rest as if he [Jackson] was manufacturing high-quality handbags or something, and doing it extraordinarily well – his achievement is not to be denigrated at all, it’s fantastic – but it’s not what we are talking about here.’’





But many voters felt otherwise, with the Lord of the Rings films, The Chronicles of Narnia and even Avatar receiving many votes and making it into the top 50. For many, they are considered New Zealand films, despite being predominantly produced for export rather than exclusively domestic consumption.





The tax incentives that spurred the first boom in New Zealand cinema are now being used to lure Hollywood blockbusters to our shores.





To put it in perspective, the $125 million of taxpayers’ money being pumped into the production of the Avatar sequels could cover the cost of about 60 Goodbye Pork Pies – or you could make the top 10 films twice over.





It is too early to see if the new tax incentives for lower budget films introduced as part of the Avatar deal will deliver a fresh wave of productivity and success.





While the future may be uncertain, one thing is for sure – New Zealand’s rich and vivid national cinema deserves to be celebrated.





See movies.interactives.co.nz for the 50 best New Zealand films of all time, interactive graphics, videos, analysis and director interviews.