This week the people who make the local stuff for our screens big and small urged the powers-that-be to tax the likes of Netflix and Disney Plus to fund it. But producers here can already get tax breaks and public funding, so can they really persuade the incoming government to make the streaming services another source of funds?

This week the people who make the local stuff for our screens big and small urged the powers-that-be to tax the likes of Netflix and Disney Plus to fund it. But producers here can already get tax breaks and public funding, so can they really persuade the incoming government to make the streaming services another source of funds?

The annual conference of Screen Producers NZ - still known by historic acronym SPADA - kicks off with a lecture which honours pioneering local moviemaker John O'Shea - a champion of the local industry since the days when film was the entire screen industry.

This year TVNZ's John Campbell conducted a sitdown chat with James Cameron, the Hollywood titan who made Titanic, Terminator and Avatar and who now lives and works mostly in New Zealand.

John Campbell put what he called the standard "Kiwi cultural cringe" question for famous foreigners to James Cameron: What do you make of the place?

Cameron said he loves it and planned to become a New Zealand citizen next year.

The news made TVNZ's 6pm bulletin that night and New Zealand Herald website rushed it out as urgent news - though the 'I love being a Wellingtonian' headline might have miffed people across in Wairarapa where Cameron has owned land and homes for some time.

James Cameron only had good things to say about filmmaking facilities and talent here - but he also warned it's not cheap to film here and that New Zealand competes with the likes of Australia (which this year increased its rebate) and even faraway Croatia.

That pointed to the key issue for the local screen producers after the disruption of Covid: how to finance productions?

Cameron - whose first film was 15 minutes long and funded by a dentist - said the Screen Production Rebate incentives productions can claim here were critical.

International productions can get up to a quarter of their spending back - and New Zealand-made films can get two-fifths.

Tax breaks for hugely profitable offshore movie studios have been controversial in the past. Amazon Prime got a $100 million boost to film The Lord of the Rings television series here - and even that wasn't enough to stop it going offshore after one series.

But James Cameron was prepared for John Campbell raising that last Thursday. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details