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Sweetshop & Green is proud to announce its recent triumph at the Festival International du Film Océanien (FIFO) where two of its projects took home major awards.

Sharlene George, managing director of Sweetshop and Green, has just returned from the festival in Tahiti. “It was so wonderful to be part of a film festival steeped in deeply cultural and indigenous stories. FIFO provides an environment to experience films and filmmakers who are uniquely from across the Pacific” says Sharlene of the experience in Tahiti, where Sweetshop & Green picked up the Best Short Fiction Film Prize for supernatural thriller, Taumanu.

“The development process for Taumanu was not only a story of reclamation for the characters, but a journey of reclamation for director Taratoa Stappard. It was a privilege to guide Taratoa culturally to receive the appropriate support to deliver the project as authentically as possible.”

Ricky-Lee Russel-Waipuka, development and production executive of Sweetshop and Green, says of the experience producing Taumanu. “We were dealing with some pretty tapu (sacred) content, therefore taking all of the right steps leading up to the shoot to ensure spiritual and physical safety was paramount for us as producers.”

And in another festival highlight Sweetshop and Green’s latest project Beneath the Moana: Exploring Deep Sea Mining in the Pacific won the Oceania Impact Pitch Prize at the FIFO Festival, allowing this worthy film to move into its next phase.

“With the danger of Pacific people only having one narrative given to them from the mining companies, it is our duty as filmmakers to explore another perspective from an indigenous point of view.” Sharlene George says on the importance of making this film.

To reach out to Sharlene George and the Sweetshop and Green team for any future projects, contact: sharlene@sweetshopgreen.com