Gaylene Preston

Dame Gaylene Mary Preston (born 1 June 1947) is a New Zealand filmmaker with a particular interest in documentary films.

Early life and family Born in Greymouth on 1 June 1947, Preston was educated at Colenso High School (now William Colenso College) in Napier. She went on to study at the Ilam School of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury from 1966 to 1968, and then the St Albans School of Fine Art in Hertfordshire, England, where she completed a Diploma of Art Therapy in 1974. She has one daughter, the actor Chelsie Preston Crayford, who was born in 1987. The music for the film was composed by her sister Jan Preston. In 1982 Gaylene directed a documentary called Making Utu about the making of Geoff Murphy's feature Utu. She has been a member of the Board of New Zealand On Air (The NZ Broadcasting Commission), and in 2001 she was the first filmmaker to be made a Laureate by the New Zealand Arts Foundation, recognising her contribution to New Zealand film and television.

In the 2002 New Year Honours, Preston was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to film making, and in 2016, she received the New Zealand Women of Influence Award for Arts and Culture in recognition of her work on New Zealand-focused films and documentaries.

Preston was awarded the Lia Award at the Stranger with my Face film festival in Tasmania in 2017. The award recognises an influential and innovative figure in the field of genre storytelling. At the festival they screened Preston's films Mr. Wrong and Perfect Strangers, which were reviewed in depth by Lauren Carroll Harris for RealTime.

She wrote, directed and produced Hope and Wire (2014) a drama mini series about the aftermath of the 2010/2011 Christchurch earthquakes.

Preston's most recent documentary feature film My Year with Helen (2017) premiered at the Athena Film Festival in February 2018.

In the 2019 New Year Honours, Preston was appointed a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to film. In 2025, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Canterbury.