Kieran Darcy-Smith’s Wish You Were Here to open Sundance Film Festival
Filmmaker Kieran Darcy-Smith’s debut feature Wish You Were Here has been selected to open Sundance Film Festival.
The screening will also be the world premiere of the film co-written by Darcy-Smith and his wife Felicity Price and produced by Angie Fielder.
Encore spoke with Darcy-Smith in November: “It’s been an extraordinary 18 months and we were given this opportunity to make this movie. I’m thrilled with the response.”
“It’s as I envisioned. That’s probably one of the reasons I feel so good – all the stars lined up. My wife and I co-wrote the script. We had to get a nanny and shoot in cambodia and it was a low budget film. It was madness. A very alive period of our lives. And out of this madness came this film.”
“I can’t wait for people to see this. I love that feeling, so many of my friends have made their first film and they wish I had done this or that – ultimately the film I’ve made is exactly the film I wanted to make.”
Of the news, in a statement, Darcy-Smith said: ” To be invited to premiere my debut film as part of the world dramatic competition at Sundance… What can I say? I’m honoured and thrilled beyond words.”
Fielder added: :“Sundance is the perfect positioning for the world premiere of Wish You Were Here and we are very excited about our opening night slot in the prestigious World Cinema Dramatic Competition category. Sundance have long been great supporters of both Aquarius Films’ and Blue-Tongue Films’ work, and we are delighted to be working with the festival to launch the feature film debut of Kieran Darcy-Smith.”
Darcy-Smith told Encore, despite some changes “it is pretty much as written – the only different is that we played with the time structure compared to the script.”
Wish You Were Here, originally called Say Nothing went through Screen NSW’s Aurora script development workshop going through three drafts. Darcy-Smith however said all together it went through ten drafts in about four years.
“I set a high bar for myself as a writer and I think script is everything. Ten Drafts, I think it needed ten drafts. It’s a very complex adult drama that required a lot of drafts to get right.”
The film is a psychological drama/mystery about four friends who lose themselves in the fun of a South East Asian holiday. However only three return home as the mystery of what happened unfolds back in Australia.
The film is supported by Screen Australia, Screen NSW and Fulcrum Media Finance with a release by eOne/Hopscotch in Australia and New Zealand and international sales handled by LevelK.
Darcy-Smith is also the curator of the Homeback Cinema Pavilion this Sunday.
Congrats to all the team involved, top effort all round, best of luck with the future release
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