NZ Film Awards postponed due to lack of local film releases

A scene from Toa Fraser's The Dead Lands.

A lack of nominees has seen this year's local movie awards postponed until next year.

The New Zealand Film Awards, also known as the Moas, has been held since 2012 and celebrates the best Kiwi films released over the past year.

But this year organisers say there simply haven't been enough movies released to warrant an awards ceremony.

Organisers Ant Timpson and Hugh Sundae said they didn't want to host an inferior show.

"Last year was an incredible year for New Zealand film and we had numerous narrative features nominated," said Timpson.

"This year we easily could have ploughed on with less nominees but ... we'd never put on a show that didn't meet our own high standards."

Usually held in December, Timpson says the ceremony will now be held in mid-2016 to allow a stronger mix of films to feature.

Last year's awards were swept up by The Dark Horse, but awards also went to What We Do In the Shadows, Everything We Loved, Hip Hop-eration, The Dead Lands and Housebound.

The only local features to get a cinematic release this year are likely to be rugby documentary The Ground We Won and the forthcoming dance film Born to Dance.

- nzherald.co.nz