Director Niki Caro

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NIKI CARO DIRECTOR, PRODUCER, CO-WRITER of The Vintner's Luck

"I felt a strong instinct for natural and human elements of The Vintner's Luck. Adapting books is a great love of mine. This one has unique challenges and I felt that cinema could express Elizabeth Knox's angelic vision."

"My idea was that the film should be more about being human than being divine and I wanted to concentrate on the natural world as opposed to the supernatural."

Niki Caro gained international recognition and acclaim when her film Whale Rider, the story of a young Maori girl fighting to fulfill a destiny her grandfather refuses to recognize, won numerous awards including a 2003 Oscar nomination for leading actress Keisha Castle -Hughes, then 13 years old. One of the year's most successful independent hits worldwide, the film won Best Children's Film Awards from BAFTA and Chicago Film Festival, US Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film, Mexico City Film Festival Special Award and New Zealand Film and Television Awards for Best Film and Best Screenplay, which Caro wrote with Witi Ihimaera, based on his novel. In addition, Whale Rider won eight audience awards at prestigious international festivals including Sundance.

After graduating from Elam School of Fine Arts in her native New Zealand, Caro began working in television, writing and directing drama series, including True Life Stories, Jackson's Wharf and Mercy Peak.

In 1994 her short film, Sure to Rise, was selected for the Cannes Film Festival.

Her debut feature, Memory and Desire, won a Special Jury Prize at the 1997 New Zealand Film and Television Awards, and the Bronze Horse at the Stockholm Film Festival.

Following the international success of Whale Rider, Caro directed North Country, a drama starring Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand. The actresses were nominated for Best Actress and
Best Supporting Actress respectively at the Academy Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, the BAFTAs, the Satellite Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Caro's crew for The Vintner's Luck included many people who had worked on her previous films. As Keisha Castle-Hughes describes it; "they're all here, all the people I worked with before, it's like a little family already set up."

Watch the trailer for The Vintner's Luck here!