List of New Zealand Academy Award winners and nominees

Last updated January 28, 2023

This is a list of New Zealand Academy Award winners and nominees.

Best Actor

Year	Name	Film	Status	Milestone / Notes
Best Leading Actor
1999	Russell Crowe	The Insider	Nominated	Crowe was born in New Zealand, but has lived in Australia since his childhood.
2000		Gladiator	Won
2001		A Beautiful Mind	Nominated

Best Actress

Year	Name	Film	Status	Milestone / Notes
Best Leading Actress
2003	Keisha Castle-Hughes	Whale Rider	Nominated	Debut performance. First indigenous person (Māori) ever nominated in this category. Second youngest nominee (age 13) ever in this category.

Best Supporting Actress

Year	Name	Film	Status	Milestone / Notes
Best Supporting Actress
1993	Anna Paquin	The Piano	Won	Dual New Zealand-Canadian citizen. Debut performance. Second youngest winner (age 11) in Academy Award history.

Best Animated Short Film

Year	Name	Film	Status	Milestone / Notes
Best Animated Short Film
1986	Bob Stenhouse	The Frog, the Dog and the Devil	Nominated	This is NZ made animated short film made by NZ National Film Unit.
1994	Erica Russell	Triangle	Nominated

Best Animated Film

Year	Name	Film	Status	Milestone / Notes
Best Animated Feature
2004	Andrew Adamson	Shrek 2	Nominated

Best Costume Design

Year	Name	Film	Status	Milestone / Notes
Best Costume Design
2001	Ngila Dickson Richard Taylor	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	Nominated
2003	Ngila Dickson Richard Taylor	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	Won	First time that featured two New Zealanders costume designers in the Best Costume Design category (in different nominations) within the same year.
2003	Ngila Dickson	The Last Samurai	Nominated

Best Director

Year	Name	Film	Status	Milestone / Notes
Best Director
1993	Jane Campion	The Piano	Nominated	Second woman ever to be nominated in this category.
2001	Peter Jackson	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	Nominated
2003	Peter Jackson	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	Won
2021	Jane Campion	The Power of the Dog	Won	First woman ever to be nominated twice in this category.

Best Documentary Feature Film

Year	Name	Film	Status	Milestone / Notes
Documentary (Feature)
1977	Michael Firth	Off the Edge	Nominated

Best Film Editing

Year	Name	Film	Status
Best Film Editing
2001	John Gilbert	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	Nominated
2002	Michael Horton	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	Nominated
2003	Jamie Selkirk	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	Won
2016	John Gilbert	Hacksaw Ridge	Won
2019	Tom Eagles	Jojo Rabbit	Nominated

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Year	Name	Film	Status	Milestone / Notes
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
2001	Richard Taylor	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	Won	Shared with Peter Owen.
2003	Richard Taylor	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	Won	Shared with Peter King.
2015	Lesley Vanderwalt	Mad Max: Fury Road	Won	New Zealand-born Australian citizen. Shared with Elka Wardega and Damian Martin.

Best Original Song

Year	Name	Film	Song	Status	Milestone / Notes
Best Original Song
2003	Fran Walsh	The Return of the King	"Into the West"	Won	Shared with Annie Lennox and Howard Shore.
2011	Bret McKenzie	The Muppets	"Man or Muppet"	Won

Best Picture

Year	Name	Film	Status	Milestone / Notes
Best Picture
1998	Tim Bevan	Elizabeth	Nominated	New Zealand-born British producer. Shared with Alison Owen and Eric Fellner.
2001	Peter Jackson Fran Walsh	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	Nominated	Shared with Barrie M. Osborne.
2002		The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	Nominated
2003		The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	Won
2007	Tim Bevan	Atonement	Nominated	Shared with Eric Fellner and Paul Webster.
2009	Peter Jackson	District 9	Nominated	Shared with Carolynne Cunningham.
2012	Tim Bevan	Les Misérables	Nominated	Shared with Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, and Cameron Mackintosh.
2014	Tim Bevan Anthony McCarten	The Theory of Everything	Nominated	Shared with Lisa Bruce and Eric Fellner.
2017	Tim Bevan Anthony McCarten	Darkest Hour	Nominated	Shared with Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, and Douglas Urbanski.
2019	Carthew Neal Taika Waititi Chelsea Winstanley	Jojo Rabbit	Nominated
2021	Jane Campion	The Power of the Dog	Nominated	Shared with Tanya Seghatchian, Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, and Roger Frappier

Best Production Design

Year	Name	Film	Status	Milestone / Notes
Best Production Design
2001	Grant Major Dan Hennah	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	Nominated
2002		The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	Nominated	Shared with Alan Lee.
2003		The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	Won	Shared with Alan Lee.
2005	Grant Major Dan Hennah Simon Bright	King Kong	Nominated
2009	Kim Sinclair	Avatar	Won	Shared with Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg.
2012	Dan Hennah Ra Vincent Simon Bright	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey	Nominated
2019	Ra Vincent	Jojo Rabbit	Nominated	Shared with Nora Sopková.
2021	Grant Major Amber Richards	The Power of the Dog	Nominated

Best Short Film - Live Action

Year	Name	Film	Status	Milestone / Notes
Live Action Short Film
1958		Snows of Aorangi	Nominated	First New Zealand film nominated in any category.
1980	Lloyd Phillips	The Dollar Bottom	Won	First New Zealander to win in any category.
2004	Taika Waititi Ainsley Gardiner	Two Cars, One Night	Nominated
2014	James Lucas	The Phone Call	Won	Dual British-New Zealand citizen. Shared with Mat Kirkby.

Best Sound Editing

Year	Name	Film	Status	Milestone / Notes
Sound Editing
2002	Mike Hopkins	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	Won	Shared with Ethan Van der Ryn.
2005		King Kong	Won
2007		Transformers	Nominated
2013	Brent Burge Chris Ward	The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug	Nominated
2014	Brent Burge	The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies	Nominated	Shared with Jason Canovas.

Best Sound Mixing

Year	Name	Film	Status	Milestone / Notes
Best Sound Mixing
2001	Gethin Creagh Hammond Peek	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	Nominated	Shared with Christopher Boyes and Michael Semanick.
2002	Michael Hedges Hammond Peek	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	Nominated
2003		The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	Won
2005		King Kong	Won
2005	Tony Johnson ^[1]	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe	Nominated	Shared with Terry Porter and Dean A. Zupancic.
2009	Tony Johnson ^[1]	Avatar	Nominated	Shared with Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, and Andy Nelson.
2013	Michael Hedges Tony Johnson	The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug	Nominated	Shared with Christopher Boyes and Michael Semanick.

Best Visual Effects

Year	Name	Film	Status	Milestone / Notes
Best Visual Effects
2001	Richard Taylor	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	Won	Shared with Jim Rygiel, Randall William Cook, and Mark Stetson.
2005	Christian Rivers Richard Taylor	King Kong	Won	Shared with Joe Letteri and Brian Van't Hul.
2011	Dan Lemmon	Rise of the Planet of the Apes	Nominated	Shared with Joe Letteri, R. Christopher White and Daniel Barrett.
2014		Dawn of the Planet of the Apes	Nominated	Shared with Joe Letteri, Daniel Barrett, and Erik Winquist.
2016		The Jungle Book	Won	Shared with Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, and Andrew R. Jones.
2017		War for the Planet of the Apes	Nominated	Shared with Joe Letteri, Daniel Barrett, and Joel Whist.
2021	Sean Noel Walker	Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings	Nominated	Shared with Joe Farrell, Dan Oliver, and Christopher Townsend.

Best Writing – Adapted Screenplay

Year	Name	Film	Source Material	Status	Milestone / Notes
Best Adapted Screenplay
1980	Jonathan Hardy	Breaker Morant	The play Breaker Morant by Kenneth G. Ross	Nominated	Shared with David Stevens and Bruce Beresford.
2001	Philippa Boyens Peter Jackson Fran Walsh	The Fellowship of the Ring	The novel The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien	Nominated
2003	Philippa Boyens Peter Jackson Fran Walsh	The Return of the King	The novel The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien	Won
2014	Anthony McCarten	The Theory of Everything	The book Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen Hawking by Jane Hawking	Nominated
2019	Taika Waititi	Jojo Rabbit	The novel Caging Skies by Christine Leunens	Won	First indigenous person (Māori) ever to win this category. Second time that two different nominations in the same year and category were for New Zealanders.
2019	Anthony McCarten	The Two Popes	The play by Anthony McCarten	Nominated	Second time that two different nominations in the same year and category were for New Zealanders.
2021	Jane Campion	The Power of the Dog	The novel The Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage	Nominated

Best Writing – Original Screenplay

Year	Name	Film	Status
Best Original Screenplay
1993	Jane Campion	The Piano	Won
1994	Peter Jackson Fran Walsh	Heavenly Creatures	Nominated

Nominations and Winners

No. of wins	No. of nominations
27	68

References

↑ "Oscar call music to my ears, says Kiwi soundman".

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[1] "Oscar call music to my ears, says Kiwi soundman".

[1]

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