Aotearoa To New York — New Zealand Film Premieres At Tribeca Festival
Aotearoa short film Womb is set to return home following its world premiere at New York's Tribeca Festival earlier this month.
New Zealand audiences will get their first look at one of the year's most anticipated local short films at this year's Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festiva l with Womb having it's national premiere in competition as part of the festival's Ngā Whanaunga: Aotearoa New Zealand's Best short film programme.
The powerful drama follows a young Māori girl in the care of a conservative Pākehā couple as she savours her mother's weekly visitations, as a custody battle driven by racial bias will ultimately decide their fate.
Directed by Ira Hetaraka (Ngātiwai, Ngāpuhi), the film had its world premiere in competition at Tribeca Festival in New York City on June 8, with director Ira Hetaraka, producer Amanda Jane Robinson and editor Sophie Coombs in attendance. The film played three screenings as part of the Floating Roots short film programme focused on Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage, co-curated by Tribeca Festival shorts programmers Ben Thompson and Madison Egan as well as Seigo Tono, the executive director of Short Shorts in Japan. Womb was the only film at Tribeca Festival 2025 from Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.
Womb had its Australian premiere at Sydney Film Festival on June 10, in competition for the First Nations Award, the world's largest cash prize in global Indigenous filmmaking. Sydney Film Festival programmers called the film: 'A haunting, unforgettable reminder of the personal cost of systemic harm – masterfully crafted, Womb unearths longing, identity, and the unbreakable pull of familial connection.'
Now, the film is set to return home. Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival Programmer Leo Koziol called the film an 'absurd and wildly original fable, starkly reminding us of the past dehumanisation of Indigenous whānau.'
Director Ira Hetaraka commented: ' Womb was birthed from experiences that shaped my own childhood; it was a response to the heavy yet incredibly fulfilling years spent reconnecting with my family and culture that had preceded its making.'
'As I read articles of the thousands and thousands of Māori children that were robbed of their identity, whether it be through closed adoptions, state or faith-based care and abuse, or just plain old racism, it became evident to me not only the universal aspect to the story, but the importance of telling it. Womb became equally a story of the sacred love between a mother and daughter as it did a story of colonisation. After playing in New York City and Sydney, I am proud and excited to bring this film home to Aotearoa audiences.'
Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival takes place across the motu from July 31 until September 10 2025.
Womb was filmed on location in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. The film stars newcomer Pounamu Hetaraka alongside Te Arohanui Korewha (Ahikāroa), Bruce Hopkins (The Lord of the Rings, Housebound, Under the Mountain), Chelsie Preston-Crayford (A Remarkable Place To Die, Dark City: The Cleaner, Nude Tuesdays), Julie Wilson and Jaine Kirtley, with narration by Ngātai Hita (Big Girls Don't Cry).
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