A young Christchurch filmmaker says her recent award winning movie is just the start of her film making career.

Tomairangi Harvey has won Best Young Film-maker at the Japan Wildlife Film festival, for a movie she wrote, directed and animated herself.

While the 12-year-old's keen to pursue film further she says her first foray into the movie making world wasn't easy.

"Trying to make all the pictures and editing it was probably the hardest bit, like trying to put it all together and all the audio in the right spot"

The New Brighton School girl is the youngest person to have a film selected in the 25 years the film festival's been running.