WhoWeAre

The Sweetshop is a boutique production company that provides a platform for talented directors to make the highest quality 'creative for creatives'. We actively work to develop our directors and provide them support to further both short and long form projects.

Now a well established global company, our reach extends across both hemispheres. Our 5 offices are defined by a unified brand voice, a culture of inspiration and decency, and a legacy of trust that delivers exceptional craft with grace and good times in every corner of the globe.

From humble beginnings in New Zealand in 2001, we carry with us the legacy of the brand established alongside the company's conception over two decades ago. Our ethos has always been to discover and nurture the world's most extraordinary storytellers, to create the most highly crafted and engaging advertising and entertainment films in the world. We also put a key emphasis on taking responsibility for our impact as a company on the environment and local communities.

The story of The Sweetshop began when three eager young New Zealanders from Auckland, brought together by their dedication to film craft, united to form their own company. All masters of their own different fields, Paul Prince, Melanie Bridge and Sharlene George turned out to be the winning trifecta of established industry knowledge needed to launch a highly successful production company.

Today, The Sweetshop is led by CEO and Founding Partner Melanie Bridge, a visionary whose own successful directing career sparked the creation of the company 25 years ago. From those beginnings, it has grown into a truly global powerhouse and stands as one of the few fully female, director-led production companies in the world.

Under Mel's leadership, the company has stayed true to what it was built on: a genuine dedication to craft, a roster that blends world-class directors with exciting new talent, and a consistent track record of award-winning commercial filmmaking. Balancing profound creative purpose with technological innovation, Melanie has successfully led the company's push for global B Corp certification, and established The Gardening.club, a sister company to The Sweetshop and one of the industry's earliest adopters of AI in film.

Since its conception all those years ago, The Sweetshop has steadily grown in prominence and impact to become the award-winning powerhouse it is today. We are proud to be a product of our past, whilst constantly evolving, the rich history of this company has led us to where we are today. 

Built by strong people with strong morals, we continue to carry through the principles dreamed up by three young Kiwis with an idea. New Zealanders are notoriously hardy and resourceful, and The Sweetshop is certainly a reflection of that archetype: once a small idea with one director, now a global operation with 34. We encourage everyone to dream big.

We did.