Women’s Film Summit creates US niche opportunity for Gaylene Preston’s film Perfect Strangers

*Special screenings in Los Angeles (July 27) and New York (July 29)
hosted by Women in Film LA and NY Women in Film and Television,
supported by Oxygen Network, First Look Media, Investment New Zealand and the New Zealand Film Commission

The Gaylene Preston-written and directed genre-busting chilling romance Perfect Strangers has been invited to two prestige US screenings for key niche audiences. WIFT Los Angeles and New York WIFT are hosting the screenings alongside the Premier TV Network, Oxygen.

The screenings, to invited influential industry guests – 500 in LA and 250 in New York - will be followed by meet the filmmaker q&a sessions featuring Preston and the film’s lead actress Rachael Blake.

Blake, who will fly in from Britain, where she is currently filming the Christmas special for popular UK television series Auf Wiedershen Pet, recently won the best actress award at Portugal’s Oporto Film Festival for her Perfect Strangers performance.

These key screenings are a direct result of the film’s well-received screening at the WIFTI (Women in Film and Television International) World Summit conference held in Auckland, New Zealand in April and attended by WIF LA and NY WIFT members who recognised the film’s appeal to female audiences and requested the opportunity to showcase it in their home cities.

Preston says, “I am delighted that both the New York and LA chapters of WIFT have been so enthusiastic to screen Perfect Strangers. The Auckland screening was supported by performances from Lucy Lawless, Danielle Cormack, Madeleine Sami and WIFT international members who presented personal stories, poetry, songs and humour beforehand. I was delighted to present the film in that frame. All the dark humour in the film was very well appreciated. Perfect Strangers is a wild exploration of the female psyche, and the international guests welcomed the ride.”

Oxygen Network, which also premiered the eventual box-office smash My Big Fat Greek Wedding in its early days, will screen Perfect Strangers in December, in a follow-up to its debut screening in May.

Perfect Strangers is celebrated for its narrative twists. The film defies classification. It has been described as “a challenging ride”, “a macabre romance” and “a chilling story about obsession”.

Having screened at most major international film festivals since launching at the Melbourne Film Festival to critical acclaim in 2003, Perfect Strangers is developing the hallmarks of a cult following. It was a popular success at the Shanghai Film Festival in June, where the second screening was even more crowded and enthusiastic than the first. It was called back by popular demand for a short theatrical season after screening in the Minneapolis Film Festival and has been selected to play for a week after it opens the Pan Pacific Festival in Japan in September. It has been selected for Competition in the Vladivostock Film Festival, and the Fantasy Film Festival in Munich. It was the opening film at the longstanding and well-respected Creteil Women’s Film Festival and was in Competition at the Brussels Fantasy Film Festival in Brussels.

Contact: Gaylene Preston gaze@paradise.net.nz ph 64 4 384 4242
suemay@xtra.co.nz ph 64 274 739 318

Gaylene Preston is writer, director and producer of Perfect Strangers. Her award winning features include Mr Wrong (1984), Ruby and Rata, Bread & Roses and WAR STORIES Our Mothers Never Told Us, which had its European premiere in official selection at the 1995 Venice Film Festival. She has produced several documentaries including the award-winning feature, Punitive Damage and Coffee, Tea and Me? With Perfect Strangers she returns to her roots as a genre filmmaker, delivering a perversely chilling romance.

Preston’s work has won eleven New Zealand film awards (including best film) as well as many international awards including a Silver Clio and Mobius Award for outstanding direction of a commercial. Her films have been regularly selected for major film festivals including Venice, Sundance, Toronto, London, Melbourne and Sydney - where in 1999 she was a member of the International Jury.

In 2001 Preston was honoured by the NZ Arts Foundation, becoming New Zealand's first film maker Laureate. She was appointed an Officer of the NZ Order of Merit in 2002 for services to film making.

Rachael Blake won an Australian Film Institute (AFI) award for best actress for her leading role in the television series Wildside. She also earned a 2001 best actress in a supporting role for her performance in Lantana and was honoured to receive the award for best actress at the Oporto Film Festival in Portugal.