First established in 2022, The FAME Mid-Career Awards (the Awards) is an annual initiative aimed at honouring and supporting outstanding talent in the performing arts community of Aotearoa. Sizable cash gifts are awarded to performing artists (across Contemporary Dance, Classical Music, and Theatre), Producing, Stage Management, Production, Design and Technical professionals.
Since its establishment, PANNZ has been privileged to honour twenty practitioners through the Awards with a total of NZ$330,000.
The awards are made possible by the generosity of private Tauranga-based philanthropic donors who make up The FAME Trust (Fund for Acting and Musical Endeavours).
Founded in 2007, The FAME Trust has long provided support for young and mid-career artists, plus funded national organisations like the NZSO, Toi Whakaari NZ Drama School and the NZ School of Dance, and local groups such as Opus Orchestra, Youth Philharmonic and BOP Symphonia.
The Acorn Foundation is a community foundation based in the Western Bay of Plenty that enables generous people to make a bigger impact in their communities, by investing the funds and distributing the returns to causes that matter – forever. Thanks to the generosity of local donors, since Acorn was established in 2003, the foundation has distributed more than $13 million to the community. Find out more about the Acorn Foundation at: www.acornfoundation.org.nz
Prior to nominations opening PANNZ will provide updated information on the award categories and assessment criteria. Below are the categories and criteria from the 2025 awards as reference - please note these may be slightly different for the 2026 awards.
THE AWARD CATEGORIES (2025)
In 2025 a total of six awards were given, each with a cash prize of NZ$20,000.
We accepted nominations for:
Artistic Awards (3 awarded from any of the below)
- Contemporary Dance: dancers, choreographers, kapa haka performers
- Classical Music: composers, conductors, instrumentalists, taonga puoro
- Theatre: actors, directors, playwrights
Technical and Producing Awards (3 awarded from any of the below)
- Technicians/Production/Design professionals – lighting designers, theatre technicians, costume designers, sound and set designers
- Producers and Stage Managers
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA (2025)
Each nomination was assessed across the following criteria:
- Meet the criteria of being a professional mid-career** artist, producer, designer, stage manager or technician, who works in the industry full time as a professional. i.e. this is your career.
- Demonstrated Excellence
- Audience response to work (this criteria does not apply to the Technical Awards)
- Innovation in their field
- Engaged in other Industry mahi (i.e. mentors, supports others in the industry, creates pathways for others etc)
- Awareness and Advocacy (i.e. an industry community leader/supporter in addressing industry issues)
All nominations were reviewed by a diverse industry panel (7 people), who have expertise in the disciplines. Nominations were independently assessed and the panel comes together to discuss the rankings and bring further discussion and a consensus is reached as to who the successful nominees will be. For any questions about or further information on the award please email info@pannz.org.nz
** Mid-career is determined through evidence of working professionally in the industry for a minimum of ten years and are recognised by industry peers as producing work of a high calibre. It is not determined by age, but at what point you are in your career.
HALL OF FAME
Previous Awards Recipients
Follow the hyperlinks below for details of that year's award recipients.
- Rodney Bell (2022, Artist Award, NZ$15,000)
- Amanaki Lelei Prescott-Faletau (2022, Artist Award)
- Tupe Lualua (2022, Artist Award)
- Ben Crowder (2023, Artist Award, NZ$15,000)
- Tānemahuta Gray (2023, Artist Award, NZ$15,000)
- Hannah Smith (2023, Artist Award, NZ$15,000)
- Jane Hakaraia (2023, Technical Award, NZ$15,000)
- Rowan Pierce (2023, Technical Award, NZ$15,000)
- Claire Cowan (2024, Artist Award, NZ$15,000)
- Bianca Hyslop (2024, Artist Award, NZ$15,00)
- Malia Johnston (2024, Artist Award, NZ$15,000)
- Anapela Polata’ivao (2024, Artist Award, NZ$15,000)
- Natasha James (2024, Technical Award, NZ$15,000)
- Posenai Mavaega (2024, Technical Award, NZ$15,000)
- Lusi Faiva (2025, Artist Award, NZ$20,000)
- Scotty Cotter (2025, Artist Award, NZ$20,000)
- Salina Fisher (2025, Artist Award, NZ$20,000)
- Owen McCarthy (2025, Technical Award, NZ$20,000)
- Vanessa Immink (2025, Technical Award, NZ$20,000)
- Bridget Carpenter (2025, Technical award, NZ$20,000)