Channel 39 reporter Annabelle Dick's documentary The Grind will be screened at the 69th Cannes Film Festival in May.
Ms Dick said the documentary, which she made last year with Kyan Krumdieck while at the New Zealand Broadcasting School in Christchurch, gave insight into the subculture that exists on Grindr, a dating app for gay men.
She was in shock when she found out on Monday the documentary had been accepted for Cannes.
"The fact that we got into one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, I am just pretty blown away.''
The next step was raising the money to get to Cannes, which she said would be a fantastic opportunity for them to meet some of the key players in the film industry.
They chose the topic because people were "always fascinated about sectors of society they don't know anything about''.
Some of the stories they uncovered could be shocking to some and one of their interview subjects had slept with 100 to 150 men using the app.
"We want to shock people while keeping it tasteful.''
After interviewing 10 men who used the app they found people used it in very different ways, with some looking for casual sex, others looking for romance and some just wanting to find friends.
She found there were many similarities with the way people used the predominantly straight dating app Tinder.
The main difference she noticed was that the men who used Grindr were more "up front'' about what they wanted.
People can help Ms Dick get to Cannes by visiting www.givealittle.co.nz/cause/getthegrindtocannes
