Film Commission relieved

Press, 31 January 1983, Page 6

Film Commission relieved

NZPA special correspondent. - * Manila .7 An anxious week for the • New Zealand Film Commission ended yesterday with <- the arrival of the first release print of “Wild Horses,” £ the official entry in, the •- second Manila International £ Film,Festival. ' * The festival, now considered one of the world’s - main film festivals, began £ a week ago, and about half of the ’22 competition £ entries from throughout ♦ the world have already been screened, But"-/“Wild. <• Horses,”

scheduled for its first public screening bn Thursday, was . still being processed in a Sydney film laboratory. The film’s producer, Mr John Barnett, picked up the first completed release print on Saturday and flew immediately to Manila. “We have been biting our fingernails a lot this week,” said the Film Commission’s chairman, Mr William Sheat, yesterday. The interest already shown in the film which is set in the Tongariro National Park, did nothing to lessen the commission’s anxiety over its late, arrival. The demand for tickets for

the “Wild Horses” screening from festival participants and the Manila public, has • been' among the heaviest of the ’more than 300 films being screened during the festival. The film-goers have not forgotten the success of last ‘ year’s New Zealand entry, “Smash Palace,” which won Bruno Lawrence a best actor award. ’ A : New Zealand actor, Keith Aberdein, who has the leading ■ role in “Wild Horses” arrived with Mr Barnett to begin a week of interviews and publicity among the 300 foreign and 1000 local journalists'-and T

television crews covering the festival. Both Mr Barnett and Mr Aberdein expressed pleasure at the finished product of the film. An American distributor has already made an offer for “Wild Horses” and the Film Commission’s head of marketing, Mr Lindsay Shelton, said buyers had been showing a lot of interest in it at the commission’s festival stand. , How it fares with the "’international jury will not be known until Friday evening when the film and acting awards are announced at the end of the festival, i"’ \