Ainsley Gardiner

Ainsley Amohaere Gardiner is a film producer from New Zealand.

Early life
Gardiner was born in Palmerston North and grew up in the Wellington suburb of Wadestown, attending Wadestown Primary School. Her mother is former MP Pauline Gardiner, and her father was a civil servant and politician, Wira Gardiner. When she was about 12 years old the family moved to Whakatāne. Gardiner is of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Ngāti Pikiao and Ngāti Awa descent.

Career
In 1995, Gardiner completed the Avalon Film and TV production course, and went on to work with producer Larry Parr at Kahukura Productions. She began producing short films, and also co-produced a 26-part series Lovebites.

In 2003, she produced her first feature film, Kombi Nation, and co-produced Two Cars, One Night with Catherine Fitzgerald. The film, directed by Taika Waititi, became the first New Zealand short to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Film.

In 2004, Gardiner and actor/producer Cliff Curtis formed a film production company focused on indigenous stories, called Whenua Films. The company received start-up funding from the New Zealand Film Commission. Gardiner worked with Curtis and Waititi to produce Tama Tū, Eagle vs Shark and the highly successful Boy, which set a new record for the highest grossing New Zealand film.

In 2007, Gardiner began co-presenting Iti Pounamu, a Māori Television series showcasing New Zealand short films. In 2009 Gardiner wrote and directed Mokopuna, a short film about a part-Māori girl who struggles to embrace her roots; the film won the best short film award at the Canadian indigenous film festival Dreamspeakers. Mokopuna was inspired by Gardiner's childhood as Māori girl living in Wadestown, Wellington, which had a very small Maori population.

In 2017, Gardiner joined a team of women directors and writers to create the feature film Waru, which focuses on child abuse in New Zealand. Gardiner wrote and directed the segment titled "Mihi," which focused on the life of a single mother struggling to make end's meet. More than 40 women had applied for the project in 2015, in which Gardiner was chosen to be among the final 9 women directors and writers to collaborate on the project.

In 2021, Gardiner and Briar Grace Smith co-developed and co-directed the feature film Cousins, an adaptation of the 1992 novel of the same name written by Patricia Grace. With its release, Gardiner and Grace Smith made history as the only Māori women to have directed a feature film since the release of Mauri by Merata Mita in 1988.

In 2023, Gardiner worked as an executive producer on the feature film Red, White & Brass, a Comedy Drama inspired by a true story of a Tongan super fan's attempt to get tickets to the Tonga vs. France Rugby World Cup.

Honours and awards
In 2010, Gardiner and Curtis shared the SPADA New Zealand Screen Industry Awards title of Independent Producer of the Year.

In the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours, Gardiner was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to film and television.

In 2019, Gardiner and Briar Grace Smith were the recipients of the Sundance Institute Merata Mita Fellowship.

Method
Gardiner describes her approach to filmmaking as collaborative and intuitive, in which community is at the center of both the production and development process. In the making of Cousins, Briar Grace Smith states that she and Ainsley Gardiner worked best with a "flat hierarchy," in which neither filmmaker had more control or command than the other. In an interview with Sundance, Gardiner explains that her process of filmmaking has been shaped by her Māori identity in which there is a convergence of community and storytelling.

Gardiner's cinematic language also revolves around visual and thematic metaphors.

Influence
Gardiner has stated that Merata Meta has had a large influence on her life and career.