Dacre Montgomery and Vicky Krieps star in Went Up the Hill, directed by Samuel Van Grinsven, which will premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.
Dacre Montgomery and Vicky Krieps star in Went Up the Hill, directed by Samuel Van Grinsven, which will premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.
New Zealand films are set to shine bright at Canada’s prestigious film festival, and our local talent will be on show.
Kiwi director Samuel van Grinsven’s psychological thriller Went Up the Hill, starring Stranger Things star Dacre Montgomery, will have its world premiere at this year’s 49th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
It’s a big achievement for the New Zealand-born, Sydney-based Van Grinsven. The movie is his second since his feature debut Sequin in a Blue Room in 2019, which premiered at the Sydney Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award for Best Feature Film.
“TIFF is a fantastic launchpad for the world premiere of Went Up The Hill,” Van Grinsven tells Spy.
“From day one this film was an ambitious undertaking, so it’s thrilling to now have the work selected for this programme and to have the opportunity to screen alongside film-makers whom I admire from around the world.”
Van Grinsven’s film will be among those of big-name directors premiering their latest work during the festival. The programme includes celebrated director Mike Leigh, who is releasing his first movie in six years, Hard Truths; the Angelina Jolie-directed war film, Without Blood; and Rebel Wilson’s directorial debut, The Deb.
Went Up the Hill, a New Zealand and Australian co-production, tells the story of Jack, who on learning of the death of his estranged birth mother, ventures home to New Zealand, returning to remote Canterbury to attend the funeral and meets her grieving widower.
Jack’s search for answers becomes dangerous when his mother’s ghost returns to inhabit both her son and her widower, instigating a life-threatening nocturnal dance.
Van Grinsven wrote the script with Jory Anast.
Director Samuel Van Grinsven's film Went Up the Hill is screening at theToronto Film Festival. Photo / Supplied
The film received production investment from the New Zealand Film Commission and Screen Australia, along with financial support from Screen CanterburyNZ and was produced by New Zealand industry power broker Vicky Pope alongside Samantha Jennings and Kristina Ceyton of Causeway Films Australia.
“We are so pleased to have the opportunity to debut Samuel’s bold and haunting sophomore feature at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival,” Pope tells Spy. “Huge thanks to all our wonderful crew, cast and investment partners who have supported us to bring this unique and gripping story to audiences around the world.”
Van Grinsven, 31, grew up in the South Island and explains to Spy that it was in those surrounds he was inspired by Sir Peter Jackson’s early work, filmed in the same region.
“It was surreal to return home to the South Island last year for this production and have the chance to shoot amidst the sublime landscape and architecture,” he says.
“Likewise, the opportunity to work with a vast array of New Zealand talent from cast like Sarah Peirse to creatives like costume designer Kirsty Cameron, has been incredible.”
The Went Up the Hill crew aren’t the only Kiwis heading for TIFF, a spokesperson for the NZFC told Spy. Along with Van Grinsven’s movie, New Zealand will have a very strong presence at the festival this year… watch this space!
Ricardo Simich is the New Zealand Herald’s Spy editor. Based in Auckland he covers all roads that lead to popular culture.
