The Toronto International Film Festival has announced that New Zealand feature film Mr Pip has been selected to premiere in the prized Special Presentation section of the ‘Oscar-buzz’ Festival. 

The Toronto International Film Festival has announced that New Zealand feature film Mr Pip has been selected to premiere in the prized Special Presentation section of the ‘Oscar-buzz’ Festival. 

“Mr Pip is an outstanding New Zealand film from an outstanding New Zealand film maker.  I congratulate Andrew, Robin, and the hugely skilled Kiwi team behind this picture on their achievement,” says New Zealand Film Commission CEO, Graeme Mason.

“Mr Pip’s selection again places a spotlight on New Zealand’s wider film making talent in what is set to be a massive year for our industry,” Graeme Mason says.

Mr Pip is an adaptation of the critically-praised New Zealand novel Mr Pip by Lloyd Jones.

Directed by Oscar-nominated New Zealand writer-director Andrew Adamson, it stars Hugh Laurie (two-time Golden Globe-winning star of the House series) playing teacher Mr Watts to a group of Bougainvillean schoolchildren, including the talented newcomer Xzannjah as Matilda, his favourite pupil.

Andrew Adamson’s Chronicles of Narnia and Shrek series of films have combined for more than $4Billion in worldwide box office sales.

The film was shot on location in New Zealand and Bougainville and was produced by Adamson, New Zealand producer Robin Scholes (Once Were Warriors, Broken English and Rain), and Los Angeles-based Leslie Urdang and Dean Vanech of Olympus Pictures (Rabbit Hole and Beginners) .  Executive Producers include James Dean, Daniel Revers, Julie Christie, Tim White and Tim Coddington.

“Andrew's film is truly epic. The audience is taken on a huge emotional journey through joy and sorrow and emerges feeling both uplifted and inspired” says Robin Scholes.  “It is all the more powerful because it is founded in the real life stories of the Bougainvillean people who helped shape and make both the book and the film.”

Adamson and Scholes will attend the premiere of Mr Pip with the assistance of the New Zealand Film Commission and the Toronto International Film Festival, which runs from September 6-16th, 2012.

Shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize, Mr Pip is a story about courage and the power of the imagination. When the eccentric Mr. Watts (Laurie), the last white man left on the war-torn island of Bougainville is asked to reopen the school, he begins to read the children his favorite novel, Great Expectations. Matilda, a gifted 14-year-old student, conjures the novel’s Victorian characters and befriends Pip who helps her to endure the violence and moral uncertainty of her daily life.  The friendship inspires Matilda not only to survive, but to love, forgive, and celebrate the power of her own voice.

The film was financed by Olympus Pictures, Daydream Productions, Eyeworks Films, The New Zealand Film Commission, NZ on Air and TV3.  Mr Pip will be distributed in New Zealand and Australia by Transmission Films and Paramount Pictures.  Focus Features International is handling world sales of the film.

Media Release: NZFC