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WHALE RIDER HAS WON AGAIN
MEDIA RELEASE: 17 JUNE 2003

Whale Rider has won again, this time at the Seattle International Film Festival.

The South Pacific Pictures-produced film took the two top audience awards, one for Best Film and one for Best Director, Niki Caro.

The Golden Space Needle Audience Awards had over 70,000 ballots cast in six different categories, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Documentary and Best Short Film, and were selected from over 220 feature films from more than 40 different countries.

Keisha Castle-Hughes was first runner-up in the Best Actress Audience Award, in a group which included Olympia Dukakis and Miranda Otto (The winner was South Korean actress Moon So-Ri.).

The Seattle International Film Festival is the largest festival in the US and has been cited by the New York Times, Variety, Film Comment and USA Today as one of the top five festivals in North America.

Whale Rider has also won audience awards at international films festivals in Rotterdam, San Francisco, Toronto, and the Sundance Festival in Utah.

Whale Rider opened in the United States on June 6, and opens in Britain, Europe and South America from July to September.