Waiting has been selected to screen as part of this year's Toronto Film Festival

Winning the Jury Prize for the Best New Zealand Short Film at the New Zealand International Film Festival has capped off a magnificent week for Amberley Jo Aumua.

Announced at Auckland's Civic Theatre last night, the debutant director's $5000 cash prize comes on hard on the heels of the news that her film Waiting has been selected for next month's Toronto Film Festival's Short Cuts programme.

The jury of filmmaker Armagan Ballantyne, writer Toby Manhire and Madman Entertainment's Andrew Cozens selected Waiting ahead of five other finalists, originally selected by veteran Kiwi filmmaker Gaylene Preston.

Samuel Kamu and Amberley Jo Aumua's Waiting has taken home the $5000 Jury Prize for the Best New Zealand Short Film at the New Zealand International Film Festival.

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Set outside a South Auckland dairy, the 12-minute tale uses the brotherhood and friendship of two unrelated boys to shine a light on the hunger for family connections experienced by youngsters within Maori and Pacific communities. Written by Aumua's fellow Unitec Institute of Technology's bachelor of performance and screen arts degree alumni Samuel Kamu, the short was filmed as part of their final year study requirements.

While praising all six finalists, the jury thought Waiting "shone through thanks to an engaging story, raw emotional force and ineffable charm that will linger long in the memory. Samuel Kamu's powerful screenplay and Amberley Jo Aumua's assured direction mark them out as prodigious emerging talents. We can't wait to see what they create next".

Casta-Troy Cocker-Lemalie, left, and Desmond Malakai are among the young cast of Waiting.

Kamu says Waiting was inspired by the days he spent hanging outside his local dairy during his childhood, while debutant director Aumua told Stuff back in June that she recognised the boys and girls in the script "because I've been one of them myself".

"When people or drive past places in south Auckland that look isolated, places of nothingness, all they see is the rough exterior, but I think there's beauty in being different."

Keen for the film to be as realistic as possible, she drew on people from her own family and community networks to appear on screen.

Other winners announced last night included Julian Vares' Thicket, which took home the $4000 Wallace Friends of the Civic Award, and Roseanne Liang's Do No Harm, which won the 2017 Audience Award.