Following successful screenings at the Cannes Fill Festival, “Home by Christmas” has now been selected for a further three international film festivals – the Sydney Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival and the Shanghai Fi
Following successful screenings at the Cannes Fill Festival, “Home by Christmas” has now been selected for a further three international film festivals – the Sydney Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival and the Shanghai Film Festival.
Filmmaker Gaylene Preston, just back from Cannes said, “It has been a real thrill to find that French audiences relate to the film in the same way that they do in New Zealand, and we look forward to taking the film to Australia and China.”
She will also be attending the Sydney Film Festival, to present her film on Sunday 13th June, where it is showing in official selection. Accompanying Preston will be her daughter and star of Home by Christmas, Chelsie Preston Crayford.
Previously, Preston’s feature documentary “War Stories Our Mothers Never Told Us” competed in the 1995 Sydney International Film Festival, and took home awards for Most Popular Film and Best Documentary.
“Home by Christmas” is a film memoir based on the director’s interviews with her father about his World War II experiences, weaving strands of poetic imagined drama, and archival footage into the interview. Released in New Zealand on April 29th, the film has now grossed over $1million at the box office.
New Zealand film maker Daniel Joseph Borgman won the Grand Prix at the Semaine de la Critique in Cannes for his short film “Berik” which was one of seven selected in competition at Semaine De La Critique, an event that runs in parallel with Festival de Cannes.
“Berik” is a short drama about friendship and understanding which takes place in Semey, Kazakhstan. Berik, 33, blind and deformed due to radiation poisoning, spends his days at home alone. That is until Adil, 11, the smallest and least popular of the kids in the apartment block, turns up on Berik's doorstep looking for the local bully’s football, which he has lost.
The Grand Prix Canal + prize for the top short film means Canal + television buys the rights to the film. Additionally Panavision Alga Techno photographic assigns equipment worth €6,000 towards the creation of Daniel Joseph Borgman’s next film project.
