Vincent Ward
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- For the New Zealand politician see Vincent Ward
| Vincent Ward | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 16, 1956 Greytown, New Zealand |
| Occupation | actor |
Vincent Ward, ONZM (born February 16, 1956)[1] is a film director and screenwriter. He currently works for a New Zealand based production company called The Sweet Shop.
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[edit] Biography
Vincent Ward was awarded an Order of New Zealand Merit in 2007 for his contribution to film making. He was born in Greytown, New Zealand. He was trained as an artist at the University of Canterbury.
Ward has earned international acclaim with a reputation for making films with a unique, deeply human vision.
Since his debut feature Vigil (1984), Ward’s films have consistently earned critical acclaim and festival attention whilst achieving a wide audience. Vigil, The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988) and Map of the Human Heart (1993) were the first films by a New Zealander to be officially selected for the Cannes Film Festival. Between them they garnered close to 30 national and international awards (including the Grand Prix at festivals in Italy, Spain, Germany, France and the United States).
The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey won the major awards at both the Australian and New Zealand film industry awards. What Dreams May Come, starring Robin Williams, was nominated for two Academy Awards (best production design and best visual effects) and won the Oscar for best visual effects in 1999 grossing all territories more than US 200 million.
Whilst in the United States, Ward wrote the story for Alien 3 and for three years developed the material that was the basis of The Last Samurai, selecting its director, and acting as executive producer on that project before writing and directing River Queen [[1]] - a woman's story of going into a 19th century (native) Maori community.
Ward began writing and directing films at 18. In 1978-1981 he made the documentary In Spring One Plants Alone, which won the Grand Prix at Cinema du Reel [[2]] (Paris), and a Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival. In Spring One Plants Alone provides the starting-point for his new feature Rain of the Children – about to be released in cinemas in late 2008.
[edit] Filmography
- State of Siege (1978) (short) director and writer)
- In Spring One Plants Alone (1981) (short) director, producer and writer).
- Vigil (1984, director and writer)
- The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988, director and writer)
- Alien³ (1992, storywriter)
- Map of the Human Heart (1993, director, producer and writer)
- What Dreams May Come (1998, director)
- The Last Samurai (2003, executive producer)
- River Queen (2005, director and writer)
- Rain of the Children (2008, director, producer and writer)
