Big Girls Don’t Cry
Set in a coastal New Zealand town over the summer of 2006, this queer coming-of-age story – executive-produced by Jane Campion – is a bittersweet slice of pre-smartphone-era teendom.
In the hazy days between Christmas and the new school year, 14-year-old Sid Bookman has a chance to reinvent herself for the tourists who flock to her small New Zealand beach town of Ōmaha. She dabbles in all the rebellious teenage rites of passage – drinking, smoking weed, self-piercing and generally trying anything to impress the popular crowd – but also dips her toe into the tantalising and dangerous realms of the internet. As Sid encounters strangers in chat rooms, she flirts with the girl she has a crush on by impersonating her best friend’s brother on an instant-messaging app. Despite her desperate bids for acceptance, she captures the attention of her older sister’s friend Freya, who sees the real Sid underneath all the posturing.
The debut feature from writer/director Paloma Schneideman (Gate Crash, MIFF 2023), a former MIFF Accelerator Lab participant and graduate of Jane Campion’s film school program A Wave in the Ocean, Big Girls Don’t Cry is a sensitive, intimate and unflinchingly honest portrayal of queer adolescence. Ani Palmer’s remarkable debut performance steers the film, conveying Sid’s youthful angst, burgeoning sexual curiosity and uneasiness in her own skin with impressive restraint; while Noah Taylor (Predestination, MIFF 2014) plays a key supporting role.
“Schneideman’s keenly observed drama … pulses with a powerful sense of place and terrifically charged scenes of chaotic intimacy.” – The Hollywood Reporter
Writer/director Paloma Schneideman and lead cast member Ani Palmer are guests of the festival and will be in attendance at all metropolitan sessions of the film.
Tickets
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