EXCLUSIVE: Blue Fox Entertainment heads to Cannes with worldwide sales rights excluding Australia and New Zealand to the New Zealand feature Big Girls Don’t Cry from feature directorial debutante Paloma Schneideman AKA musician PollyHill.
Production recently began in Mangatāwhiri Omaha and Tāmaki Makaurau in the region of Auckland in New Zealand.
The coming-of-age story takes place in the summer of 2006 as 14-year-old Sid experiences a sexual awakening and the desire to be accepted by an older group of girls as she explores her rebellious side, leaving a trail of destruction in her wake. Rain Spencer and Noah Taylor star alongside newcomer Ani Palmer in the lead.
Vicky Pope (Went Up the Hill) of POP Film and Thomas Coppell (Little Apocalypse) of Tomorrow, Rain are the producers. The executive producer is David Ross. Big Girls Don’t Cry has received support from the New Zealand Film Commission, A Wave In The Ocean, Hinterland Creative, and Images & Sound.
Madman Entertainment will distribute in Australia and New Zealand.
Schneideman is one of 10 emerging New Zealand directors who underwent one year of artistic practice under the mentorship of Oscar-winner Jane Campion through her Wave In The Ocean programme, supported by Netflix. Big Girls Don’t Cry is the first feature to emerge from the initiative.
“Big Girls Don’t Cry is the film I wish I’d seen at 13 – caught in that strange, aching space between childhood and adolescence,” said Schneideman, who added: “Making this film has been an act of discovery, shaped by collaboration and play – principles my friend and mentor Jane Campion instilled in me.”
Schneideman directed the short films Gate Crash (2023) and Memory Foam (2019), both of which screened at New Zealand International Film Festival.
Blue Fox Entertainment president Lisa Gutberlet said of Big Girls Don’t Cry: “It’s a film that captures the heart and complexity of growing up in a way that feels both personal and universal that audiences around the world are sure to connect with and enjoy.”
The company’s international sales titles include Sidelined: The QB and Me starring TikTok influencer Noah Beck; Long Day’s Journey Into Night starring Jessica Lange and Ed Harris; and the sci-fi adventure XENO produced by Kevin Hart and starring Lulu Wilson, Wrenn Schmidt, Paul Schneider and Omari Hardwick.
No comments yet