Writer / Director

On set of the short film Cold, completed 2018. Stills by Tracey Olivier.

‘It was an honor to work with Kirsty on her short film ‘Cold’. She impressed me deeply as a film-maker. Kirsty writes from the core of her truth, and her films possess an authentic, incandescent rage which is both visceral and mesmeric.’

– Matt Sunderland- Writer/Actor/Director, 2018

‘Kirsty demonstrated tremendous commitment, courage and intelligence. She is very resilient, a natural leader ‘.

– Harry Burton, acting teacher, 2009 (long time associate of Harold Pinter).

After obtaining a scholarship to take part in European Act, a three month acting and writing intensive through the London Actors Center in association with RADA, Kirsty took classes in screenwriting with Paul Thompson ( NYU – TISCH) in Paris. It was Paul’s classes that inspired her to gain more skills to write and direct for film.

Kirsty earned her Masters in Creative writing, script stream at the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University in 2012.

She directed two short films in 2014 studying screen production with Tutors Jake Mahaffy and Shuchi Kothari at the University of Auckland.

In 2016 Kirsty directed and produced her third short film, Cold which premiered at the Sandy Dennis Film Festival (US) in 2018.

She was chosen by the New Zealand directors guild in 2016 to be a participant in the inaugural DEGNZ Women’s Film Incubator.

Kirsty was picked by the New Zealand Film Commission as part of their Accelerator program for emerging film makers for the Melbourne International Film Festival 2016 and took part in a workshop with Cate Shortland (Somersault).

CURRENT PROJECTS:

Kirsty is in pre-production with producer Lynnaire MacDonald to direct a forth short film in 2023, script by Suzanne Adamson.

Kirsty Hamilton Set to Direct Short Film Save Me

The project received second round status in NZFC Fresh Shorts fund (2020) and had a successful Kickstarter in 2022.

When a teenage girl is blamed for her brother’s death by her grieving mother, she makes a sacrifice to win back her mother’s love.

Kirsty is also developing two other shorts and her feature screenplay Harakore/Without Sin which reached second round status in 2018 for the Sundance Writers Lab.

https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/news/degnz-announces-women-filmmakers-incubator

https://www.radionz.co.nz/collections/newshorts/audio/2575500/miss-penny-by-kj-hamilton

https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2575500

https://www.pledgeme.co.nz/projects/2554-sunset-a-short-film-by-kirsty-hamilton

Warning: the below video contains content related to suicide.

Death Priest (short documentary, in development 2023)

‘I consider myself a death priest’.

A short documentary about a man whose life was changed when he answered a job advert in a paper: Mortician wanted. This is a story about an ordinary man who took up the challenge of extraordinary profession. He gives us insight into his incredible, unusual world, and shares his profound prospective on humanity as a result of answering this unique calling.