EXCLUSIVE: Myriad Pictures has added the New Zealand box office smash Tinā to its AFM (November 11-16) sales roster and will commence talks with international buyers next week.
CEO Kirk D’Amico and his team hold international rights to Miki Magasiva’s drama about a Samoan music teacher, grieving the loss of her daughter in the Christchurch earthquakes, who takes a job at a private school and helps a troubled student and her friends find meaning in a choir.
Anapela Polataivao from Our Flag Means Death stars alongside Antonia Robinson and Beulah Koale.
Tinā ranks as the highest-grossing local film in a decade in New Zealand and the fifth-best of all time after it opened earlier this year through Madman Entertainment and overtook Whale Rider en route to $3.7m.
In the US, Rialto Distribution International staged the widest release in five years for a New Zealand feature. It opened in Hawaii, American Samoa and Guam before expanding nationwide to more than 100 screens, earning more than $450,000 to become the highest-grossing New Zealand film since Hunt For The Wilderpeople.
The film premiered at Hawaii International Film Festival and won Palm Springs Film Festival’s Best Narrative Feature Audience award along with the Golden Space Needle Award at Seattle Film Festival.
Magasiva said: “We are excited to partner with Myriad. Kirk and the Myriad team were the perfect team to take our film across the world. Audiences have been asking for a worldwide release, now it is a real thing.”
D’Amico added: “We are both honoured and delighted to bring this heartwarming film to international distributors. Director Miki Magasiva and lead actress Anapela Polataivao have come together to show us the redemptive power of engaging with people you care about. In this case students learn about music and life from a strong and independent and yet unassuming teacher. It is no wonder that the film resonated in a big way with audiences in New Zealand and elsewhere.”
The Brown Factory production is produced by Dan Higgins, Mario Gaoa, and Magasiva. Executive Producers are Victoria Dabbs, Jamie Hilton, and Magasiva .
Kirk D’Amico negotiated the deal with Higgins and Kelly Rogers from Rialto Distribution.
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