October 24, 2019
Gaylene Preston Productions’ television version of MY YEAR WITH HELEN is amongst the finalists in this year’s Huawei
NZTV Awards, with nominations in four categories:
NZ On Air Best Documentary - producer Gaylene Preston, co-producer Catherine Madigan
Best Director: Documentary/Factual - Gaylene Preston
Best Editing: Documentary/Factual – Paul Sutorius
Images & Sound Best Original Score – Jan Preston
Following MY YEAR WITH HELEN’s successful 2017 cinema release, Dame Gaylene Preston and Paul Sutorius re-cut the movie
into a television version commissioned by Three and aired last September.
Dame Gaylene says: “Over many years, Three has made a major contribution to the cultural life of New Zealand, often
commissioning and screening bold and challenging programmes aimed at making a real difference. I strongly urge that
everything possible be done to keep this valuable production output going.”
She has had a long association with the network, which has commissioned many of her productions, including the
post-Christchurch earthquakes drama series “Hope and Wire” and award-winning documentaries “War Stories Our Mothers
Never Told Us”, “Earthquake” and “The Time of Our Lives”.
The cinema version of MY YEAR WITH HELEN, which follows Helen Clark’s 2016 bid for UN Secretary General with gender
political themes still resonates with audiences, screening internationally in a series of special-event screenings to
influential audiences including San Francisco, Palo Alto, Washington, London, Geneva, Tokyo, Berlin, Canada, South
America, Spain and in many film festivals including Sydney, Melbourne, Korea, Turkey and the Athena Women’s Film
Festival in New York.
MY YEAR WITH HELEN is produced, written and directed by Gaylene Preston through her company Gaylene Preston Productions
with funding from NZFC, NZ On Air, Three and private investors. Co-produced by Catherine Madigan and executive produced by Alexander Behse.
MY YEAR WITH HELEN is available for download from https://www.gaylenepreston.com/store
More information: https://myyearwithhelen.com/
Gaylene Preston Awards:
2001 New Zealand Arts Foundation - New Zealand’s first Filmmaker Laureate
2002 Officer of the NZ Order of Merit
WIFT NZ Lifetime Achievement Award
2016 New Zealand Women of Influence Award for Arts and Culture
SPADA Industry Champion Award
2017 Services to Cinema award - NZ Film Awards
2017 Lia Award from Stranger With My Face Film Festival.
2019 Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to film
ends