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Ross Giblin / Stuff
Bill Gosden, director of the New Zealand International Film Festival, has passed away.
One of the most influential figures in the New Zealand film industry has passed away.
Wellington’s Bill Gosden was the director of the New Zealand Film Festival for almost four decades, but resigned in March last year due to health problems.
He died peacefully in the early hours of Friday, five days before his 67th birthday.
New Zealand Film Festival Trust President Catherine Fitzgerald said Gosden’s contribution to New Zealand film culture through film festivals was indelible. In New Years honors he received a New Zealand Order of Merit for his filming services.
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“Bill lived and breathed cinema from his early years, working tirelessly to create a demand in New Zealand audiences for films of the highest quality from around the world.”
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Seventy-nine feature films and seven short film collections from 41 countries will be screened online and in select cinemas and venues as part of this year’s Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival.
Gosden, a hard-working and calm voice, had an encyclopedic knowledge of local and international cinema.
His successor Marten Rabarts said in an interview with Things Last year Gosden didn’t just show movies, he championed them.
Gosden was diagnosed with bowel cancer in June 2017 and last year Stuff reported on his medical battles and his life spent in film.
He was described as “the equivalent of a film historian and a cultural curator.”
Gosden joined the Wellington Film Festival (the former name of NZIFF) in 1981.
Throughout his career, his goal was always to expand and grow the audience, and to put a crack in the dominance of Hollywood cinema.
His final program in 2018 was the busiest at the festival, which gave him a lot of satisfaction.
Craig Simcox / Stuff
Gosden won the Wellingtonian of the Year award, art category in 2006.
The current director of the Film Festival, Marten Rabarts, said on Saturday that the news of Gosden’s death was a sad day for the film industry in New Zealand and around the world.
“The New Zealand film festival and film community owe Bill a huge debt of gratitude for the decades of hard work and passion that he committed to developing and promoting a world-class festival experience for audiences and filmmakers alike. “.
Award-winning Wellington filmmaker Dame Gaylene Preston said Things last year, Gosden always knew his audience when scheduling each festival.
“Moviegoers who wanted to be challenged and see unusual movies, and mainstream crowds who wanted a more palatable fare. He managed to please both crowds. “
Gosden won the Wellingtonian of the Year arts category in 2006.
Gosden said in an article in Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival about his retirement announcement in December 2018: “I look back with pride at the astonishing array of national and international cinema that has found its first New Zealand audience in NZIFF “.
