{"id":507178,"date":"2026-07-03T02:19:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T02:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/507178\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T02:19:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T02:19:15","slug":"really-mind-blowing-the-new-zealand-coming-of-age-film-winning-big-overseas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/507178\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Really mind-blowing\u2019: The New Zealand coming-of-age film winning big overseas"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a phenomenal run on the international festival circuit, Paloma Schneideman is bringing her award-winning film Big Girls Don\u2019t Cry home to Aotearoa.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Less than a week ago, filmmaker Paloma Schneideman was in the crowd at Nouvelle Vagues film festival in Biarritz, wrongly assuming her astonishing debut feature film Big Girls Don\u2019t Cry wasn\u2019t about to win anything. That was when festival jury president Kristen Stewart began announcing the Grand Prix winner with a mention of a 14-year-old girl. \u201cI was like, \u2018wait, this is sounding familiar\u2019,\u201d says Schneideman. \u201cIt was a total shock. It was really mind-blowing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Set over one yawning summer in \u014cmaha, Big Girls Don\u2019t Cry follows 14-year-old Sid (Ani Palmer) as she attempts her own reinvention in the age of dial-up, Nokia 3315 face plates and self-administered bellybutton piercings. Exploring sexuality and queerness in mid-2000s small town New Zealand, the film premiered at Sundance to glowing reviews in Variety<\/a> and The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>, and has now taken out one of the most coveted international prizes for young filmmakers (the Grand Prix was won last year by Urchin\u2019s Harris Dickinson).\u00a0<\/p>\n

While awarding the Grand Prix to Big Girls Don\u2019t Cry at the weekend, Stewart said the film \u201cunpacks the early 2000s and subliminal trespass and pain and strength in the face of it all with such an astounding touch.\u201d Stating \u201cI loved this film with my whole heart\u201d, she also praised the way that the story deftly allows audiences to connect with and reflect on our younger selves. \u201cIt gave me a chance to see what that girl couldn\u2019t see,\u201d she said. \u201cThat she was the coolest girl in the room, and even if it hurts so bad right now, it\u2019s going to be OK.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now sitting at home in T\u0101maki Makaurau, Schneideman says she\u2019s still processing the moment. \u201cAs far as queer co-signs go, Kristen\u2019s about the best you can get,\u201d she laughs. \u201cBut beyond that, I was just so struck by how beautifully she spoke about the film and how much the film spoke to her. It\u2019s crazy when other people can talk about the film better than you can, because they feel so seen by it. You make this really inherently Kiwi work, and you worry if it is too specific or too restrictive that people aren\u2019t going to resonate with it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Ani Palmer as Sid in Big Girls Don\u2019t Cry. Image: Jen Raoult<\/p>\n

Schneideman says she made the film for her 14-year-old self, the one surfing Sky Digital to find \u201cany inkling of female sexuality\u201d and whose friends were constantly on Omegle and MSN Messenger seeking scandalous interactions with \u201cweirdos all over the internet\u201d. Although the story began with that specific girl, it was conversations with her friends in her 20s that highlighted just how universal these experiences actually were. \u201cIt just felt really imperative to give voice to that deep loneliness and shame that you feel as a teenager before you even understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while she\u2019s been enjoying the last six months of \u201ccrazy chaos\u201d taking the film around the festival circuit from BFI Flare in London to South by Southwest in the United States, Schneideman is most excited to be bringing the film home to Aotearoa later this month when Big Girls Don\u2019t Cry opens this year\u2019s Wh\u0101nau Marama New Zealand International Film Festival<\/a>. \u201cIt was always a quiet but deeply personal goal to one day open the film festival,\u201d she says. \u201cI just know it\u2019s going to be the greatest pride of my life to show it to the people I made it for and with.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Ani Palmer and Paloma Schneideman at Nouvelle Vagues (Photo: Sarah Witt)<\/p>\n

There are also, naturally, a lot of New Zealand references in the film that have flown over people\u2019s heads overseas. \u201cIt\u2019s been so funny to see where the humour lands across different cultures. There\u2019s some really esoteric Kiwi gags in there that I just can\u2019t wait for the New Zealanders to experience.\u201d For example, there\u2019s an old Warehouse ad playing in the background that didn\u2019t quite land at Sundance. \u201cTo me and my crew it\u2019s the funniest thing ever so we were cracking up, but everyone else was totally silent, because they just don\u2019t get it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The film also captures all the prophecies and pressures that come with New Year\u2019s Eve for young people in Aotearoa, the crown jewel event in our endless, often transformative, summer holidays. \u201cWhen you are a teenager it feels like New Year\u2019s Eve is kind of a projection who you\u2019re going to be that year, so you want to be the coolest, funnest, best thing,\u201d says Schneideman. \u201cIt\u2019s such a cultural phenomenon here that makes for an interesting coming of age story. I think New Year\u2019s is so evocative of change and transformation, and that is what this film\u2019s about, really.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

And even if you didn\u2019t slurp back your first shotgun in the mid-2000s, Schneideman says Big Girls Don\u2019t Cry has something for everyone. \u201cThis film is for anyone that\u2019s tried on versions of themselves in aspiration to get closer to who they really are. I hope you come and watch it and feel seen and reflected, and I hope it offers up some catharsis with a side of humour.\u201d In fact, some of her favourite responses to the film have been from dads in the audience. \u201cIt has really surprised me how many people a story like this can actually reach,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I guess everyone comes of age, right?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a phenomenal run on the international festival circuit, Paloma Schneideman is bringing her award-winning film Big Girls…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[252826,156,111,139,69,73268,252827,1066],"class_list":["post-507178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-big-girls-dont-cry","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-nz-film","tag-nziff","tag-pop-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}