To mark the 40th anniversary of the New Zealand Film Commission, NZ On Screen brings us the stories behind some of our most notable local films.
Director Taika Waititi started writing Boy soon after finishing his 2003 short film Two Cars, One Night, developing it for several years before its eventual 2010 release.
Filmed in the Bay of Plenty, where Waititi partly grew up, Boy is inspired by "true and imagined memories" – an 11-year-old boy (James Rolleston) trying to make sense of his world, and the return of his just-out-of-jail father (Waititi).
Within two months of release, Boy had overtaken The World's Fastest Indian to become New Zealand's highest-grossing local film (that is, until the arrival of Waititi's 2016 hit Hunt for the Wilderpeople).
Here Waititi reveals the story behind another memorable moment in his career – his now infamous 'falling asleep' gag at the 2005 Oscars.
