How the Aotearoa/New Zealand Film Heritage Trust Works
Te Āhua o ngā Mahi a Te Puna Ataata
Caring for Trust Titles
Te Tiaki i ngā Kiriata Puna
The Film Heritage Trust will ensure that films assigned into its care:
- have their materials preserved
- have materials created in digital format
- are accessible
- continue to be available for future generations to enjoy
The Trust does not physically store archival materials for the films in its care but works closely with Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision as a key custodian of film materials and with the New Zealand Film Commission as funder and former sales agent for the majority of New Zealand films over the first forty years. By taking an assignment of the rights the Trust is enabled to access both archival materials and the information and documentation necessary to establish the current licensing status for the NZFC back catalogue and to make enquiries and repatriate materials from offshore laboratories and archives if necessary.
While the Trust is particularly focused on caring for feature films, where a filmmaker has a body of work that includes other formats they wish to assign to the Trust, we will happily include those also.
Managing Trust Titles
Te Whakahaere i ngā Kiriata Puna
Filmmakers can appoint the Trust as the guardian and decision-maker for their films, either through assigning their film rights directly to the Trust or by appointing the Trust as the manager for their film.
In general, an assignment agreement assigns outright ownership of rights to the Trust, and a management agreement assigns to the Trust the ability to manage films on behalf of the owners.
In both cases, filmmakers retain their right to income per the production financing agreement and income continues to be paid into the film income account established at the time of financing.
Where a filmmaker/rights holder wishes to direct future income generated by their film to the Trust, we undertake to use this income in the preservation of further titles and towards activities to enable access to Trust titles for both commercial and educational viewing purposes.
If you are interested in placing your film(s) into the care of the Trust. we would be happy to discuss this with you. Please get in touch.