Papua New Guinea's Most Expensive Film Finishes Shooting

Papua New Guinea's most expensive film to date has finished its main shoot. The $4.5 million historical drama Mussau: The First Song wrapped principal photography, the core filming period, according to Variety, which reported the wrap on 7 November 2026.

The shoot took 40 days across two provinces. Crews filmed on Mussau Island in New Ireland Province and in Goroka, the main town of Eastern Highlands Province. Reaching the island was a journey in itself. The 120-person crew included 20 technicians from India, who spent 30 hours at sea to get there.

The film is inspired by a true story set in the 1930s. It follows Taula Livovoa, an indigenous missionary. Bijukumar Damodaran directs, and he is a three-time winner of the Indian National Film Award. He wrote the screenplay with Jennifer Litau and Joses Imona, working from a story by Hilda Tanimia. Parul Agrawal produces, and Noelene Taula Wunum is executive producer.

Much of the cast was drawn from local communities, and many of those actors had never performed on screen before. Several roles are played by great-grandchildren of the real people whose lives inspired the story. The dialogue moves between six languages: Mussau, Emirau, Agarabi, Gadsup, Tok Pisin and English. Tok Pisin is a widely spoken creole language in Papua New Guinea.

The producer, NAFA Productions, marked the wrap with a Thanksgiving event in Port Moresby, the national capital. In October, the company had said filming would begin in September 2026. That timetable held, and the shoot is now complete.

Next comes the hard part, which is finding an audience. NAFA Productions wants the film to premiere at a top-tier international festival in 2027. Festivals of that scale are where many films meet the distributors who sell them to cinemas and streaming services. The company also hopes the film will be Papua New Guinea's official entry for best international feature at the 100th Academy Awards.

That hope has a precedent. Damodaran's earlier co-production with India, Papa Buka, was the first film Papua New Guinea ever submitted to the Oscars' international feature race. For a country that has rarely had a film in that conversation, a second attempt would be a notable step. For now, though, the film is in the edit, and the calendar points to festival premieres and Oscar eligibility rules still to come.