Christmas

Christmas was shot and edited for $39,000, with King using his parent‘s home in Whangarei as the principal location. In keeping with the low budget ethos, the cast of nine and crew of ten stayed at a local holiday camp during filming and had a catering budget of ten dollars a day per person.

Demonstrating an unprecedented level of interest for a film shot on such a small budget, Christmas received Official Selection to screen at the Toronto, Edinburgh, Locarno, New Zealand and Melbourne International Film Festivals in 2003. The film also won four awards at the 2003 NZ Film and Television Awards for Best Digital Feature, Best Script, Best Performance and Best Technical Contribution.