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This Spada Producer Spotlight features Jazz dos Santos, a producer and production all-rounder with an incredible knack for spotting fresh, diverse voices and building collaborations that push creative boundaries.  

Finding The Role That Fits 

Jazz knew what she wanted from the time she was eleven years old, to work in film. “First, I thought I wanted to be a performer, so I did dance and drama classes. Then I thought I wanted to be an animator, so I made stop-motion films. Then I tried writing, editing, making music, pretty much everything!”. 

But nothing quite fit, until Jazz realised her real talent wasn't any single craft, but the ability to see how all the pieces belonged together. 

"My strength was having a strong creative eye, a sixth sense for a good story, and an understanding of how all the elements fit together. I learned what a producer was at university, and that felt right."

That instinct has carried Jazz through an increasingly varied slate of screen projects, and her producing credits include two award-winning short films. I Am Not Your Dusky Maiden, directed by Vea Mafile'o and produced alongside Seuta'afili Dr. Patrick Thomsen, was a finalist for Ngā Whanaunga Aotearoa New Zealand's Best at NZIFF 2025, and selected for international festivals including the ImagineNATIVE Film Festival and the Māsima Film Festival. Lǎo Lao Lǎo Le received Best NZ Film, Best Director (Julie Zhu) and Best Actor (Kuaka and Mary Wu) at the 2023 Show Me Shorts Festival, and Best Short Film at the 2025 Melbourne Women in Film Festival.  

Jazz has also produced music videos for acclaimed artists JUJULIPPS, PONZ and Skilaa, with micro-budget music video NIGHTSHIFT for JUJULIPPS (directed by Jaya Beach-Robertson) nominated for Best Content at the 2025 Aotearoa Music Awards. More recently, Jazz co-produced the youth documentary series Sight Unseen for Able, where she championed innovative production practices such as open audio description and the use of an access coordinator - a first for a New Zealand social-first series. 

Ask Jazz which project she's proudest of, though, and she doesn't point to a festival selection or a funded project. It's the scrappy online videos she makes to promote her own work. "There are no rules on the internet, and I get a kick out of seeing people's reactions to the dumb shit I make," she says. 

The Craft Behind the Confidence 

Jazz names five qualities that anchor her producing practice day to day: efficiency, tenacity, humility, patience and emotional regulation. It's a grounded, self-aware list from someone who describes her own experience of the job in a single, honest contradiction. 

"As a producer, I don't know what I'm doing. But simultaneously, I know exactly what I'm doing." 

It's a sentiment many producers (at any career stage) can relate to. 

When asked what training or tool has shaped her most as a producer, Jazz doesn't point to a course or a piece of software. It's something less tangible and, arguably, more valuable: "The School of Hard Knocks & the Power of Friendship and Community." 

That ethos of community runs through her work and is reflected in the huge respect Jazz holds among her peers: Jazz received eight separate nominations for the 2025 Spada Emerging Producer Award, all recognising her ability as a producer to balance financial realities with artistic ambition, and to always keep the kaupapa of the project at its heart.  

Upon winning the 2025 Spada Emerging Producer Award, sponsored by NZ Film Commission, Jazz used her speech to acknowledge the challenges facing producers and the importance of wellbeing within the screen sector. This philosophy is at the heart of Night Watch, the company Jazz runs with Jaya Beach-Robertson. 

“Night Watch is about having your mates back in amongst the grind of the creative industries. It’s about allowing yourself to take a beat, a moment, to catch up on sleep or eat a proper meal or hug your mum because you know your mate is on the night watch. Everything won’t fall apart if you tap out for a minute. It’s important to us that we check in and honour each other, not just as colleagues but also as humans.” 

Jazz dos Santos represents exactly the kind of emerging talent driving Aotearoa's screen industry forward: resourceful, community-minded, and unafraid to bring humour and honesty to work that also tackles difficult subject matter. 

As she continues to build Night Watch's slate, she brings a rare mix of instinct, discipline and self-awareness; proof that not knowing exactly what you're doing, and knowing exactly what you're doing, aren't mutually exclusive at all. 

> Follow Night Watch on Instagram
> View the Spada Producer Spotlight on Jazz dos Santos on Instagram

> Nominations for the 2026 Spada Emerging Producer Award close at 5:00pm, Thursday 24 September 2026.

Nomination forms and criteria HERE