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 $25 million to the community. Find out more about the Acorn Foundation at: www.acornfoundation.org.nz

2026 Nomination

NOMINATIONS OPEN - 10am Monday 13 October 2025

Nominations for The FAME Mid-Career Awards in 2026 will close 5pm Friday 21 November 2025.  No late nominations will be accepted.

Recipients will be announced at the PANNZ Arts Market 2026.

THE AWARD CATEGORIES (2026)

In 2026 a total of six awards will be given, each with a cash prize of NZ$20,000.

Nominations will be accepted under the following criteria:

Artistic Awards (3 awarded from any of the below)

• Contemporary Dance: dancers, choreographers, kapa haka performers in a theatrical context.
• Classical Music: composers, conductors, instrumentalists, taonga puoro players.
• 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 (2026)
Each nomination will be assessed across the following criteria:

1. 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.
2. Has evidence of 3-5 recent professional works/performances to paid audiences – please list with details and dates.
3. Is based in NZ – spends more than 50% of their time living in NZ, working with NZ creatives during that time.
4. Demonstrated Excellence.
5. Audience response to work (this criteria does not apply to the Technical Awards).
6. Innovation in their field.
7. Engaged in other Industry mahi (i.e. mentors, supports others in the industry, creates pathways for others etc).
8. Awareness and Advocacy (i.e. an industry community leader/supporter in addressing industry issues).
9.  One nomination per person will be considered by the assessment panel (ie the strongest application will be determined by PANNZ admin). Multiple nominations for one person do not influence  the outcomes.

All nominations will be reviewed by a diverse industry panel (7 people), who have expertise in the disciplines. Nominations are 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.

https://pannz.org.nz/the-fame-mid-career-awards/