Jarmusch’s Cannes Grand Prix winner just confirmed

Wednesday 23rd June 2005

MEDIA RELEASE – Auckland and Wellington

Jim Jarmusch’s Cannes Grand Prix winner just confirmed for the Telecom New Zealand International Film Festivals

Broken Flowers, starring Bill Murray, Sharon Stone, Julie Delpy, Tilda Swinton and Jessica Lange, which won the prestigious Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival last month, joins the Telecom 2005 New Zealand International Film Festivals’ award-winning line-up.

“The late confirmation of Jim Jarmusch’s star-studded deadpan comedy brings our haul of Cannes prize-winning films to an all-time record of five. What’s particularly exciting is that these are the five very top prize-winners,” says Bill Gosden, Film Festival Director. “It’s taken weeks of discussions to secure Broken Flowers and we’re all very pleased that this effort has paid off,” he adds.

Broken Flowers, described by Time Out magazine as “deliciously funny and strangely touching”, is directed by Jim Jarmusch, a Film Festival regular since Stranger than Paradise in 1983.

Bill Murray plays Don Johnston - and the name's similarity to that of a certain 1980s TV star causes hilarity wherever he goes. He's a middle-aged commitmentphobe whose life is turned upside down with the arrival of an anonymous letter telling him that he has a 19-year-old son by one of his former conquests. But which? Don goes travelling across the country on a road-trip into his own past, catching up with a stellar array of ex-girlfriends: Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange and Tilda Swinton.

Other Cannes prize-winners screening at this year’s Telecom New Zealand International Film Festivals are: Palme d’Or, The Child, a feature film by Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. Michael Haneke’s Hidden, which won him Cannes’ Best Director award, will open both the Auckland and Wellington Film Festivals (8 July and 15 July respectively). The feature debut Me and You and Everyone We Know by American video performance artist Miranda July shared the Camera d’Or, Cannes’ prize for Best Film by a new director. And finally, for Auckland audiences only, Wang Xiaoshuai’s Cannes’ Jury Prize winner Shanghai Dreams.

As Broken Flowers is a late entrant into the Film Festival you won’t find information on this film in the programme brochure. However, all screening details can be found on the Film Festival website www.nzff.telecom.co.nz and are stated below.

Broken Flowers screening times:

Auckland Friday 22 July, 3.45pm, Civic Sunday 24 July, 8.30pm, Civic

Wellington Friday 29 July, 4pm, Embassy Sunday 31 July, 9pm, Embassy

The Telecom 37th Auckland International Film Festival opens on 8 July and runs till 24 July.

The Telecom 34th Wellington Film Festival opens on 15 July and runs till 31 July.

ENDS

© Scoop Media