Remembering Anna Cahill

With great sadness, the Screen Directors Guild of New Zealand wishes to inform you that our executive director Anna Cahill passed away on 8 June 2013.

Anna has been executive director of the Screen Directors Guild of New Zealand for the last eight years. She took the Guild from strength to strength, establishing and building constructive relationships with our sister organisations here and overseas, engaging with broadcasters, politicians, and funding bodies, all of whom respected her collegial pragmatism.

As a driving force behind New Zealand’s Film and Television Awards, Anna successfully raised the Guild’s public profile, pushing to improve the conditions, rates, and creative voice of directors and editors, while always being a ready and sympathetic ear, good friend, and a supporter of members’ projects.

Her death will be felt right across the screen industry. Anna believed in the social and cultural value of the television and film industry, and worked tirelessly to bring people and industry bodies together. She was a genuine industry champion, with a style and personality that easily won the love and respect of all she met.

Anna has very much been the heart and soul of our organisation in the years she has worked for and with us. We will dearly miss her generosity, spirit, and intelligence, and most of all her friendship.

Our thoughts and sympathies are with her husband and children.

The Screen Directors Guild of New Zealand