Paolo Rotondo: 2016

Paolo is an award-winning Italo-Kiwi artist working in Film, Television and Theatre in New Zealand for twenty years as a writer, actor and director. In 2016 Paolo's first feature film as writer/director, "Orphans & Kingdoms," won international critical acclaim in USA, China, Europe and India, picking up awards including "Best Film," "Best Cinematography" and "Best Editing." Paolo's short film "Dead Letters" won "Best Screenplay" at the New Zealand Film Awards. His stage plays have been published by Playmarket and toured extensively, nationally and internationally — highlights include the box office success "Little Che" and "Strange Resting Places," about the Maori Battalion in Italy during WW2, which toured for nine years, garnering five star reviews in Edinburgh and winning the Chapman Tripp Award for "Best New Playwrights." In 2015 Paolo was the winner of the NZSA/Auckland Museum Research Grant to conduct research on his new historical play "Kororareka" for Red Leap Theatre Company, an opportunity that allowed him to complete a residency at the Michael King Writers Centre to work on the project. Paolo is Artistic Director of the "Cinema Italiano Film Festival" and directs for TV and film for Flying Fish film.