EMMY AWARDS: New Zealand comedy duo Flight of the Conchords today missed out on an Emmy nomination for best comedy series, but received nods for three other categories. The Conchords were last month tipped to snag a best comedy nomination for their self-titled HBO series in which the Wellington pair Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, play marginally talented folk singers struggling to make it in New York. But while they missed out on that award, the show received nominations for directing,... more>

POETRY: Janet Charman has won the 2008 Montana New Zealand Book Awards poetry category and $5000 for her collection Cold Snack. The announcement was made today, Montana Poetry Day -- a nationwide celebration of events featuring some of the country’s best and emerging poets. There were 26 books submitted in the poetry category of this year’s awards up from 19 in 2007. "Janet Charman’s work stood out for its highly economical writing, where words act as gestures,... more>

FILM: New Zealand filmmaker Florian Habicht thinks his third feature Rubbings From a Live Man may be the one which has the most profound effect on him as a human being. Habicht emerged as one of the country’s more individual film voices early this decade with his surreal tale Woodenhead, and then gained further recognition with Kaikohe Demolition, his loving documentary on the Northland town’s demolition derby community. Now he’s turned his camera towards veteran Auckland... more>

ARTS: National says it won’t cut the current level of arts funding should the party win this year’s election but will be keeping a close eye on how the the sector’s bureaucrats operate. National Party Arts, Culture and Heritage spokesman Chris Finlayson said people had raised concerns that his party would reduce funding. "While in these tighter economic times it is not appropriate to significantly grow funding, it would also be counter-productive to reduce funding," he... more>

London based theatre company, Shaky Isles Theatre is the UK’s ONLY New Zealand theatre company. Keep your diaries open this July because we are bringing you a festival of New Zealand culture and arts. The festival will include; Theatre, Comedy, Dance, Film, Art Exhibits, Storytelling/Poetry, Family Day, as well as a Seminar Series, and Workshop & Masterclasses. Artists include; Photography by Kerry & Salvador Brown, Comedy from Jarred Christmas, Art exhibits by Rosanna Raymond... more>

FILM: A film production company set up in Taranaki last year has found a replacement director to film the story of New Zealand’s greatest war hero, Captain Charles Upham. Fat and Thin Productions said the new director is Justin Chadwick, who helmed The Other Boleyn Girl and the multi-award winning BBC production of Bleak House. He is in New Zealand overseeing pre-production work and said he expected to start principal filming by October 1. It was originally due to start filming in... more>

FILM: A New Zealand docu-drama has opened to critical praise at the Sydney Film Festival. Vincent Ward’s feature film Rain of the Children had its world premiere when it screened in competition at the Sydney Film Festival. The film revisits the life of Puhi, the Tuhoe woman at the centre of Ward’s 1978 documentary In Spring One Plants Alone. Film industry publications the Hollywood Reporter and Variety have given the film praise and applauded Ward’s fresh take on the... more>

ART: A Goldie oil painting of a Maori chieftainess astounded art experts in Auckland last night when it sold at auction for $323,000. Charles Frederick Goldie,who died in 1947, painted Harieta Huirua, a chieftainess from the Tuhourangi Tribe in Rotorua in 1921. Last night’s sale at the International Art Centre in Parnell was the first time it had been offered for public sale since it was bought the year it was painted. Richard Thomson, the gallery director, said it was originally... more>

MUSIC: A young New Zealand soprano is to attend the prestigious Cardiff International Academy of Voice thanks to a scholarship. Gisborne-born Claire Egan has been named as the inaugural winner of the $10,000 Laurie Coon Foundation scholarship in singing, presented by the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation. Only 15 emerging singers from around the world are offered positions on the programme each year which includes the opportunity to be mentored by world-class teachers, singers, conductors and singing... more>

VENICE: New Zealand returns to the Venice Biennale next year, with not a dalek in sight. Two artists, Judy Millar from Auckland and Francis Upritchard from Christchurch, will represent their country in a six-month exhibition at the 2009 Venice Biennale, the most significant event on the international visual arts calendar. It will cost taxpayers $650,000. The biennale is held every two years, but next year will be New Zealand’s first return to Venice since 2005, when there was... more>