Costa Botes, an independent filmmaker in New Zealand since the early 1980s, has made a significant impact in the film industry.
His short film, Stalin's Sickle, won the jury prize at the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival in 1988, while his mock-documentary, Forgotten Silver, co-written and co-directed with Peter Jackson in 1995, created a national sensation and won a special critics prize at the Venice Film Festival.
Costa's first feature film, Saving Grace, was selected for competition at the Valladolid, Asia-Pacific, and Fantasporto Film Festivals in 1997. He went on to document the making of Peter Jackson's epic trilogy, Lord of the Rings, from 1999 to 2003, producing a trio of feature-length documentaries that were released in a limited edition DVD box set in 2006 and later included in the definitive Blu-ray collection in 2011.
Costa established his own production company, Lone Pine Film & TV Productions, in 2005 to produce independent documentaries. He has made several documentaries, including Struggle No More, a biography of NZ's greatest unknown band, and Yes That's Me, about a blues musician with manic depression.
Costa photographed, produced, and edited the documentary, Lost In Wonderland, in 2009, mentoring its young director, Zoe McIntosh. The film premiered at the NZ Film Festival and won awards for photography and best documentary at the Qantas NZ Film & TV Awards the following year.
He wrote and produced another film for Zoe, a 35mm short called Day Trip, in 2010. The film was selected to screen at numerous international festivals, including Tribeca, Clermont Ferrand, and Hawaii, and won the Signis Award at Espression En Corto in Mexico and best short film at the Montreal First Peoples Film Festival.
Costa's next documentary feature, Candyman: The David Klein Story, was about the eccentric American candy genius who invented Jelly Belly jellybeans. The film premiered at Slamdance and Hot Docs in 2010 and won the Director's Choice best documentary award at the Rincon Puerto Rico Film Festival.
He followed this with two documentary features: Daytime Tiger, a film about mania; and The Last Dogs of Winter, about a man fighting to preserve rare Inuit sled dogs from extinction. The Last Dogs of Winter had its world premiere as an official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Costa also wrote and executive produced another short dramatic film for director Zoe McIntosh, The World in Your Window, in 2017. The film has screened at many top international festivals and won awards at Clermont-Ferrand, Tokyo, Melbourne, FlickerFest, Vancouver, Prague, and Tahiti.
His most recent work, Angie, premiered at the NZ International Film Festival in 2018. The film was described by one critic as a "deep, dark, daring wonder" and another critic wrote, "Costa Botes has been making films for over 30 years: ANGIE is his best yet. He has always had a deft hand when it comes to emotional material. He has the ability to melt into the beautifully framed background and let the subjects speak, his flawless editing weaving a narrative spell."
