Sam Witters is a well-known screen industry executive whose global career spans production investment, distribution, and creative technology innovation. 

Since returning to Aotearoa, she has focused on strengthening regional screen capability and ensuring New Zealand’s creative sectors are understood, valued, and seen as investible—demonstrating that creativity and commerciality thrive together. 

As Director of Kōawa Studios at the University of Canterbury, Sam leads a growing ecosystem for screen, animation, gaming, sound, and virtual production. Kōawa brings together state-of-the-art infrastructure, industry partners such as Aardman Academy, and supports UC’s Bachelor of Digital Screen programme. 

Recent successes include attracting productions like Holy Days and Kiri and Lou, fostering student talent, and drawing top creative talent to the region. 

Under her leadership, Kōawa is becoming a place where emerging creatives strengthen their skills, collaborate with industry, and benefit from the conditions that attract companies capable of creating future employment pathways in the region.

Focused on pushing the boundaries of storytelling through AI, Arthur works across a range of formats, from leading creative and production end-to-end to consulting and plugging into projects to accelerate and supercharge them. 

Arthur’s personal AI-driven projects have also gained wide acclaim. His short film LLM – Modello Linguístico Divino has been selected and awarded at festivals worldwide, alongside other viral and award-winning AI productions. 

When he isn’t counting laps in the pool or enjoying the beautiful New Zealand outdoors with his young family, he is focused on the next frontier of filmmaking through his international representations, continuing to explore how emerging technologies can unlock new visual languages and contribute to the future of filmmaking.

He was a founding member of the Creative Media Industries Institute at Georgia State University, served on the Atlanta Interdisciplinary AI Network, advancing ethical and equitable approaches to AI, and has spent a career as faculty at Emory University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Georgia State University. Dr. Miller currently serves as Academic Director of Digital Screen at the University of Canterbury in Aotearoa New Zealand, supporting academic and professional pathways for creative practice across film, games, virtual production, and Indigenous narrative.