Niki wanted to film organic living processes and images, not the glossy photography you often get in period pieces. She suggested we use hand-held camera, which I like to do. We didn’t want the camera work to be the foreground, rather that the camera was in the middle of the action, observing and passing the information on to the audience.

Denis Lenoir, a veteran of European cinema, now working mainly in Hollywood, is truly an international filmmaker, having worked in 29 countries to date.

In 2002 he was nominated for the Emmy Award for his work on Jon Avnet’s television miniseries Uprising, and won the American Society of Cinematographers award for the programme.

In the same year he won the Camerimage Bronze Frog Award for Olivier Assayas’ feature film Demonlover. In 2004 Lenoir was nominated by the Australian Film Critics Circle and by the IF for his photography of The Old Man Who Read Love Letters, directed by Rolf de Heer. A previous collaboration on the director’s Dingo resulted in a nomination from the Australian Film Institute for Best Achievement in Cinematography.

Lenoir has twice collaborated with director Christopher Hampton - on Carrington, and The Secret Agent.

Recent film credits include Francois Ozon’s Angel, and Righteous Kill, directed by Jon Avnet and starring Robert de Niro and Al Pacino.

As preproduction progressed we became a little looser with historical accuracy of the period, so that, in combination with the camera work and the costume design, the film has a different style and a more contemporary feel than most period dramas.

New Zealander Grant Major won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction in 2004, for his work on Peter Jackson’s blockbuster Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, the final film in the trilogy. In 2002 and 2003 he received Academy Award nominations for the previous two Lord of the Rings films – Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers. In 2006 he was nominated again, for his work on Peter Jackson’s King Kong. For the Lord of the Rings trilogy he received a plethora of international design nominations and awards including the American Film Institute, Art Director Guild and National Board of Review Design Awards.

Major began his collaboration with director Peter Jackson on Heavenly Creatures (1994), working with him again in 1996 on The Frighteners.

He has worked with Niki Caro since her directorial feature debut, Memory and Desire in 1997, for which he was awarded a New Zealand Film and Television Award for Best Design, and was nominated for his work on Whale Rider in 2002. He also won a New Zealand Film Award for Heavenly Creatures, The Ugly and Jane Campion’s international success An Angel at My Table, on which he is also credited as a producer.

Major began his screen design career on New Zealand television and has varied credits including production design for the Commonwealth Games ceremonies, and designer of New Zealand Pavilions at the World Expos in Spain and Australia.

More recently he turned his hand to directing and his short film Undergrowth is selected for the New Zealand International Film Festival 09. Grant Major is currently working on The Green Lantern for Warners.

Niki encouraged me to go with my instincts, which is how I prefer to design costumes. I’m painting a picture with the clothes that fits into the overall look of the film.

Beatrix Pasztor began a long collaboration with director Gus van Sant in 1989, soon after leaving her native Hungary to live and work in the USA. She designed costumes for Drugstore Cowboy, and went on to work with the director on My Own Private Idaho, Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, To Die For, Good Will Hunting and Psycho.

For her work on Terry Gilliam’s The Fisher King, Pasztor was nominated for a Saturn Award, and nominated by the Costume Designer’s Guild for Alfie, directed by Charles Shyer in 2005. In the same year she won the Golden Satellite Award for Mira Nair’s Vanity Fair, starring Reese Witherspoon.

Other recent film credits include Curtis Hanson’s Wonder Boys, The Secret of Moonacre, directed by Gabor Csupo and The Brothers Bloom, directed by Rian Johnson. Beatrix Pasztor is currently working on the new (untitled) Woody Allen London Project.

Denise Kum has worked with Niki Caro on all three of her previous features Memory and Desire, Whale Rider and North Country.

She has twice won the New Zealand Film & TV Award for Best Make-up for her work on Channelling Baby (1999) and Savage Honeymoon (2000) and was nominated for the award in 2003 for Whale Rider.

Prior to commencing The Vintner’s Luck, London based Kum worked with director Gillian Armstrong on Death Defying Acts starring Catherine Zeta Jones and Guy Pearce.

Long-time collaborator, David Coulson has previously worked with director Niki Caro on both North Country and Whale Rider.

An award-winning editor he has worked on a range of feature films including director Harry Sinclair’s Topless Women Talk About Their Lives and Gregor Nicholas’ Broken English.

Brazilian composer/performer Antonio Pinto’s versatility shows in the range of films he has scored - from Walter Salles award-winning Central Station and Meirelles indie hit City of God, to Hollywood pictures such as Perfect Stranger for Sony and Lord of War for director Andrew Niccol.

He received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song (co-written with performer Shakira) for Mike Newell’s Love in the Time of Cholera.

The Vintner’s Luck was a challenging collaboration, with Pinto working from his studio in Brazil while director Niki Caro was engaged in post-production in New Zealand.  Modern recording and communications technology enabled the two to work together across the miles and for this film set in 19th century France, he has created a very modern and original score which beautifully complements the work of the other creative collaborators.