Oscar nominee Chelsea Winstanley on diversity, Disney and divorce

Chelsea Winstanley has taken charge of the entire filmmaking process – “I will do what I can every day of the week to support Brown women telling their stories.” Photo / Supplied
After more than a decade in the film industry that has seen her score an Oscar nomination and work alongside Disney’s top brass to translate their animated classics into te reo Māori, Chelsea Winstanley has a simple message to those in the film industry.
“Sorry, old white dudes, you’ve had your time.”
Winstanley has never shied away from championing Māori stories and perspectives, but as she tells the New Zealand Herald podcast, Straight Up, hosted by Niva Retimanu and Beatrice Faumuina, she’s only been bolder about her position in recent years.
“I’ll just champion brown women. I’ll say it all the time now.
“I will do what I can every day of the week to support brown women telling their stories, because in my mind, we’ve got the most interesting things to say.”
That has led Winstanley to launching her own production company, Matewa Media, and working with Disney to bring about te reo translations of animations, including Moana, The Lion King, and, most recently, Frozen.
“It was really about us being in charge of our own storytelling, and I’ve always been big about that story sovereignty for me,” Winstanley explained.
Winstanley made history in 2020 when she became the first Indigenous woman to be nominated for Best Picture, for her work producing Jojo Rabbit, but she told Straight Up that she follows in the footsteps of other wāhine filmmakers, such as mentor Merata Mita and fellow Oscar nominee Ainsley Gardiner.
“If you have someone like that kind of mentoring you, you can’t help but just carry on that path of what they were doing,” she said of Mita, who inspired Winstanley as a child and later brought her into her final project, a documentary about child abuse in Māori communities.
It’s a subject close to Winstanley’s heart, who experienced childhood sexual abuse, as well as experiencing trauma later in life, including a major car accident after becoming a mother for the first time, and experiencing sexual harassment on set. Asked why she has been so open about the adversity she’s faced in life, Winstanley said that honesty is the only way to live, but she’s only reached that point in the past few years.
“In terms of my trauma and things that I’ve experienced and I have talked about openly, I did that because I knew that other people out there, especially young women who maybe have experienced childhood sexual abuse and things like that, I think it’s just important to let other people know that they’re not alone.”
She said she has learned the power of forgiveness in recent years, and being able to pass the “veil of shame and anger” back on to those who have caused pain.
Giving up drinking four years ago has helped her on that path – “drinking for me wasn’t helping me move through my forgiveness and pain” – and in brief comments on her separation from Taika Waititi, Winstanley said while she is “happier not being in it”, the relationship happened for a reason and she knows so much more about herself now.
“I’m honestly the happiest version of myself I’ve ever been. And I can only think that I’m just going to get even better.”
Listen to the full podcast above to hear more from Chelsea Winstanley on working with Disney, diverse storytelling and finding forgiveness
• Straight Up with Niva and Beatrice iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes come out on Saturday mornings.
• You can find more New Zealand Herald podcasts at nzherald.co.nz/podcasts or on iHeartRadio.