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Film26 October 2026

All Kiwi Women Should Watch Big Girl’s Don’t Cry

I finally got to see Big Girl’s Don’t Cry, the Kiwi indie film that headlines the NZ film festival. Directed by Paloma Schneideman, in her feature debut and starring Ani Palmer, Rain Spencer and Noah Taylor. Set in a seaside town on the Matakana coast over the summer of 2006, the film follows 14-year-old Sid, who is caught between childhood and adulthood. Desperate to be accepted by a glamorous group of older teens, she keeps reinventing herself, and her efforts to fit in cause more chaos. Things change when her older sister comes home with a magnetic friend, Freya, who stirs sexual feelings Sid can’t yet name.