DIRECTOR: Jane Campion
PRODUCER: Bridget Ikin
PRODUCTION CO: Hibiscus Films, ABC, Television New Zealand, Channel 4 
SCREENPLAY: Laura Jones, based on the autobiography by Janet Frame
PHOTOGRAPHY: Stuart Dryburgh
EDITOR: Veronika Jenet
MUSIC: Don McGlashan
WITH: Kerry Fox (Janet Frame), Alexia Keogh (child Janet), Karen Fergusson (teenage Janet), Iris Churn (Mother), Kevin J Wilson (Father), Melina Bernecker (Myrtle), Glynis Angell (Isabel), Martyn Sanderson (Frank Sargeson), William Brandt (Bernhard)

FESTIVALS: Venice – Grand Special Jury Prize, Toronto, New York

REVIEWS

“With An Angel at My Table, Academy Award–winning filmmaker Jane Campion brought to the screen the harrowing autobiography of Janet Frame, New Zealand’s most distinguished author. Three actors in turn take on the lead role (including Kerry Fox in a marvelous performance as the adult Frame), as the film describes a journey from an impoverished childhood marked by tragedy to a misdiagnosis of schizophrenia resulting in electroshock therapy and a narrowly escaped lobotomy to, finally, international literary fame. Unobtrusively capturing the beauty and power of the New Zealand landscape while maintaining the film’s focus on the figure at its center, Campion broke new ground for female filmmakers everywhere and earned a sweep of her country’s film awards, along with the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.”

– Criterion

“There are none of the usual artist-biopic clichés here. Frame, as embodied by three uncannily-matched actresses, is bright but intensely, awkwardly passive, and inhabits a chaotic, arbitrary universe. Watching her hard, slow struggle for self-respect, happiness and peace becomes a profoundly moving, strangely affirmative experience.”

– Geoff Andrew, Time Out

FILM SOCIETY SCREENINGS

Canterbury  
Monday, 11 March, 7.00pm

Dunedin  
Wednesday, 20 March, 7.30pm

New Plymouth  
Wednesday, 27 March, 6.00pm

Hamilton  
Monday, 08 April, 6.30pm

Carterton
Friday, 26 April, 7.00pm

Nelson 
Wednesday, 08 May, 6.00pm

Wellington  
Monday, 20 May, 6.15pm

Timaru  
Tuesday, 28 May, 6.30pm

​Auckland  
Monday, 10 June, 6.00pm 
This screening is open to the public – all tickets $10, on sale now at Academy Cinemas (AFS members free)

Whanganui   
Monday, 17 June, 7.00pm

Tauranga  
Saturday, 29 June, 6.00pm

Bigger Picture Ōamaru  
Thursday, 22 August, 7.00pm​
NZ FILM selection >>