New Zealand Films Dominate NZ Box Office

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Wednesday, 5th May 2010

New Zealand Films Dominate NZ Box Office

New Zealand films Boy and Home By Christmas are the second and third most popular films at the NZ cinema this week, proving once again that New Zealanders love NZ films.

Gaylene Preston’s film memoir Home By Christmas opened this weekend to rave reviews and strong audience numbers, taking nearly $300,000 at the NZ box office.

NZ Herald’s Peter Calder rated the film 5/5, and said it was “a classic New Zealand story, perfectly told.” Sam Edwards from the Waikato Times gave the film five stars and said “this is a film with style, and the style displays a New Zealand sensibility so profound that it single-handedly restores a sense of what it is to live in this country.” Dominion Post reviewer Graeme Tuckett said actor Tony Barry’s performance in the film was “a rare and special performance, and it perfectly ballasts this gentle, funny, utterly truthful and reflective film.”

Taika Waititi’s Boy continues its hugely successful cinema run nearing the box office mark of NZ$6million. Waititi, currently on location in New Orleans, is cutting together a new music video for Poi E, the 1984 song which closes Boy.
Written by linguist Ngoi Pewhairangi with music by Dalvanius Prime, Poi E was a way to teach young Maori to be proud of being Maori – in a format that young people were comfortable with. Prime released the song under his own label, Maui Records, and he recorded Poi E in late 1983 The Patea Maori Club provided the vocals above a funky rhythm that featured bass, Linn drums and a synthesiser.
Both Home By Christmas and Boy are screening in the market at Cannes this year. Home By Christmas and Boy are also screening as part of the Cinema des Antipodes section of Cannes Cinephiles, which runs alongside and in partnership with the Cannes Film Festival. Home By Christmas writer/director/producer Gaylene Preston and actor Chelsie Preston-Crayford will both be in Cannes to introduce their film to the Cinephiles audience.

Home By Christmas is financed by the New Zealand Film Commission, NZ On Air, TVNZ, the Wellington Company and Gaylene Preston Productions. The film is being distrbuted in NZ by Metropolis Films.

Boy is financed by the New Zealand Film Fund, NZ Film Commission, Unison Films, NZ On Air, Maori Television Service and Te Mangai Paho. The film is being distributed in NZ by Transmission Films.

NZ Film, the sales arm of the NZFC, is handling world sales of both films.

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