Of Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Hauā descent, Awanui Simich-Pene’s cinematic voice is informed by her commitment to Māori storytelling and wahine perspective (which refers to Māori feminist discourse). Spanning writing, directing and script supervision across both film and television, her work is known for its powerful narrative arcs and authentic portrayals of Indigenous subjectivities. She won the Te Aupounamu Māori Screen Excellence Award for Titty & Bash, part of the portmanteaux film Waru (2017). Her short film First Horse (2024), which premiered at the Sydney Film Festival, was honoured with the inaugural First Nations Award and also received recognition at the New Zealand International Film Festival and Santa Fé International Film Festival (both 2024). Simich-Pene is an alumna of Jane Campion’s A Wave in the Ocean Crest programme, supported by Netflix and the New Zealand Film Commission.