A new international film festival to be hosted in Tauranga in 2021 is planned to showcase the best of home grown and international filmmaking talent.

Plans for the festival were announced last night at the red carpet premiere of The Apex Academy of Performing Arts, which was held in the United Cinemas complex in Bayfair, Mount Maunganui.

Director of The Apex Academy, actor Harry Oram says that with the world spotlight on New Zealand, the Bay of Plenty was the perfect place to invest in film making, to showcase the region's natural beauty and creative talent.

Harry says the 'post-Covid world” which has put positive global attention on New Zealand creates a great opportunity to establish a film studio in Tauranga.

'Tauranga has the potential to be the LA of New Zealand, a creative hub in New Zealand developing film and television entertainment for the rest of the world.”

Harry says the film festival in Tauranga will be open to submissions from around the world, with a goal to promote film in Tauranga and New Zealand. It will provide an international platform to local talent - whilst also giving more incentive to bringing international films here.

Harry has already organised two international independent film festivals in Hong Kong which received more than 1800 submissions in two years. The third festival, to be launched in Tauranga next year, will be the Third Culture Film Festival, aiming to put Tauranga on the map as the 'California of New Zealand” says Harry.

'The festival will be a ‘must-attend' global platform for creatives in art, fashion, music and innovation.”

Harry is keen to nurture collaboration with Film Bay of Plenty and United Cinemas, both of whom sponsored the premiere last night.

Mauricio Bustamante, patron of the Apex Academy of Performing Arts. Photo: Supplied.

The Apex Academy of Performing Arts, started by Harry and his mother, business woman Elizabeth Monteseña, is a new acting school in Tauranga teaching method acting, film acting, writing, Shakespeare, and combat workshops. Patron for the academy is Mauricio Bustamante who has been part of the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute faculty in New York since 1994. At the school Harry teaches the Lee Strasberg method of acting which he himself trained in in New York. Film maker Dhaivat Mehta and events and marketing director Krystal Black are also Apex Academy faculty members.

Film maker Dhaivat Mehta on the set of 'Aora'.

Last night's premiere showcased the work of Harry's first students who attended inaugural summer workshops. The night included the screening of five short films that the students made and acted in, as well as a live performance of a scene from the 1985 play ‘Fences'.

The night ended with the film ‘Aora', written by Sun Media journalist Rosalie Liddle Crawford, directed by Harry and starring the student actors. A shorter version of the film was made as part of the 2021 Vista Foundation 48Hours film competition in March, a 'guerilla filmmaking competition” in which competing film crews have just 48 hours to write, direct, act, shoot, edit and produce a short film.

'Anyone who has ever tried to make a film knows this is no mean feat, but everyone rose to the occasion, and I am so proud of the students, many of whom had never acted before - they can only get better,” says Harry.

Born in Hong Kong to his English Kiwi father, also named Mathew Henry Oram, and to his Filipino Spanish mother Elizabeth, Harry studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York, and his acting and life took him to LA, then on to movies in Asia and China acting in movies like ‘Dragonblade' (2015), ‘Lady Bloodfight' (2016) and ‘Time Raiders' (2016).

He has been a teacher at the International Academy of Film and Television in Hong Kong, where he also founded an acting studio and theatre company, Third Culture Theatricals, as well as organising the two international film festivals.

In 2020, he returned to the Mount from London when Covid-19 pandemic hit. People told him if he wanted to act or start an acting school it would have to be in Wellington or Auckland.

'But I said - ‘Why not Tauranga?' It is a beautiful place with the sun all the time. Perfect for a studio and for filmmakers.”

He is looking forward to working with other creatives in the region as well as Film Bay of Plenty.

'There is so much talent in this region. The creative community here is just flourishing and I can see it booming even more in acting and film making. I want to be a part of helping anyone do that.”