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WHALE RIDER INVITED TO COMPETE AT SAN SEBASTIÁN
MEDIA RELEASE, 23 AUGUST, 2002

Whale Rider, the South Pacific Pictures-produced feature film, has been invited to screen in competition at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.

It is amongst just 18 films from around the world invited into the Official Section in competition at the Spanish festival. It will also be competing for the New Director’s Prize.

Directed by Niki Caro (Memory and Desire), Whale Rider is based on the novel by acclaimed New Zealand writer Witi Ihimaera (The Matriarch, Tangi). It stars newcomer Keisha Castle-Hughes, Rawiri Paratene, Vicky Haughton, and Cliff Curtis (Collateral Damage, Training Day, Blow, Jubilee, The Insider, Three Kings, and Once Were Warriors).

Whale Rider is represented internationally by London-based sales agent, The Works, and represented in New Zealand and Australia by Buena Vista International. BVI will release Whale Rider in New Zealand next year.

Whale Rider is produced for South Pacific Pictures, ApolloMedia and Pandora Film by Tim Sanders; John Barnett of South Pacific Pictures; and Frank Hübner of ApolloMedia. Executive Producers are Bill Gavin and Linda Goldstein Knowlton. Author Witi Ihimaera is also Associate Producer.

The film tells the story of a young girl’s fight to prove her love, her leadership and her destiny, and is shot on location in Whangara, on the East Coast.

Whale Rider is the first film to receive funding from the New Zealand Government’s new Film Production Fund. Other investors in the film are ApolloMedia in Germany, Filmstiftung NRW, The New Zealand Film Commission and NZ on Air.

ADDENDUM: OCTOBER 2002:

Whale Rider received standing ovations at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, with director Niki Caro cheered as she exited the theatres.