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WHALE RIDER TO SCREEN AT PRESTIGIOUS SUNDANCE FESTIVAL
MEDIA RELEASE: THURSDAY 5 DECEMBER, 2002

Whale Rider, the South Pacific Pictures-produced feature film, is to screen at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in January 2003.

Founded by Robert Redford to showcase the best of independent cinema, Sundance is considered the most significant US festival. Sundance selectors preview around 3000 films in order to choose about 125 feature films and documentaries.

Whale Rider will screen in the World Cinema section, in which just 26 films have been invited to exhibit. Previous World Cinema selections have included Shine, The Full Monty, and Run Lola Run. A public ballot determines the World Cinema Audience Award winner.

Whale Rider has already won the coveted People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it had its world debut earlier this year. It also screened in the Official Section of the San Sebastián International Film Festival. It has received a warm critical reception from audiences at early festival, trade and media screenings. Whale Rider opens in New Zealand on January 30.

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 distributed in New Zealand and Australia by Buena Vista International, and in North America by Newmarket Films. The film has already been sold to nearly all major territories including North America, South and Central America, Japan, Hong Kong, Italy, Switzerland, France, Holland, Portugal and Israel. More sales are pending.

Whale Rider is produced for South Pacific Pictures, ApolloMedia and Pandora Film by BAFTA winner Tim Sanders (The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring), The Frighteners); John Barnett (What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?) of South Pacific Pictures; and Frank Hübner (The Musketeer and FearDotCom) of ApolloMedia. Executive Producers are Bill Gavin (What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?) and Linda Goldstein Knowlton (The Shipping News). 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.