Costa Botes

Costa Botes has made a significant mark as an independent filmmaker in New Zealand since the early 1980s. His career took off with the short film *Stalin’s Sickle*, which garnered the jury prize at the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival in 1988. In 1995, Botes co-wrote and co-directed *Forgotten Silver* alongside Peter Jackson, a mock-documentary that stirred national excitement and won a special critics’ prize at the Venice Film Festival, ultimately achieving cult status globally.

Botes’ directorial debut, *Saving Grace* (1997), was showcased at various prestigious film festivals including Valladolid, Asia-Pacific, and Fantasporto. He captured the behind-the-scenes journey of Peter Jackson’s *The Lord of the Rings* trilogy through a trio of feature-length documentaries from 1999 to 2003, released in a limited edition DVD set in 2006 and later included in the definitive Blu-ray collection in 2011.

In 2005, he founded Lone Pine Film & TV Productions to focus on independent documentaries. Notable works include *Struggle No More* (2006) and *Yes That’s Me* (2008), as well as the award-winning *Lost In Wonderland* (2009). His collaboration with emerging director Zoe McIntosh continued with the short film *Day Trip* (2010), which achieved international acclaim.

His documentary *Candyman: The David Klein Story* (2010) premiered at Slamdance and won the Director’s Choice Award at the Rincon Puerto Rico Film Festival. Subsequent works like *Daytime Tiger* (2011) and *The Last Dogs of Winter* (2012) further solidified his reputation, with the latter premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival.

In 2015, *Act of Kindness*, which explores a young New Zealander's experiences in post-genocide Rwanda, won the Best Editing award at the Melbourne