I felt a strong instinct for natural and human elements of The Vintner’s Luck. Adapting books is a great love of mine. This one has unique challenges and I felt that cinema could express Elizabeth Knox’s angelic vision.

My idea was that the film should be more about being human than being divine and I wanted to concentrate on the natural world as opposed to the supernatural.

Niki Caro gained international recognition and acclaim when her film Whale Rider, the story of a young Maori girl fighting to fulfill a destiny her grandfather refuses to recognize, won numerous awards including a 2003 Oscar nomination for leading actress Keisha Castle -Hughes, then 13 years old. One of the year’s most successful independent hits worldwide, the film won Best Children’s Film Awards from BAFTA and Chicago Film Festival, US Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film, Mexico City Film Festival Special Award and New Zealand Film and Television Awards for Best Film and Best Screenplay, which Caro wrote with Witi Ihimaera, based on his novel. In addition, Whale Rider won eight audience awards at prestigious international festivals including Sundance.
After graduating from Elam School of Fine Arts in her native New Zealand, Caro began working in television, writing and directing drama series, including True Life Stories, Jackson's Wharf and Mercy Peak.
In 1994 her short film, Sure to Rise, was selected for the Cannes Film Festival.
Her debut feature, Memory and Desire, won a Special Jury Prize at the 1997 New Zealand Film and Television Awards, and the Bronze Horse at the Stockholm Film Festival.
Following the international success of Whale Rider, Caro directed North Country, a drama starring Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand. The actresses were nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively at the Academy Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, the BAFTAs, the Satellite Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Caro’s crew for The Vintner’s Luck included many people who had worked on her previous films.  As Keisha Castle-Hughes describes it; “they’re all here, all the people I worked with before, it’s like a little family already set up.”

New Zealand Co-producer Robin Laing has produced and executive produced nine feature films and a range of short films and documentaries for her Wellington based company Meridian Film Productions. Her credits include Perfect Strangers, Stickmen, Ruby and Rata, Bread and Roses and Mr Wrong. She has served as Chair of the Trust Board for the NZ Film and Television School, a trustee of the NZ Film Archive and NZ Film Festivals Trust, founding President of WIFT in New Zealand and as a Board member of the NZFC. In 1993 she was awarded an MBE for services to the film industry.

Robin Laing has produced for several New Zealand directors including Gaylene Preston, Christine Jeffs, Hamish Rothwell and Anna Reeves.

The Vintner’s Luck is her first collaboration with Niki Caro.

French Co-producer Pascal Judelewicz has produced and coproduced with Acajou Films, Les Films de Cinéma, Les Films des Tournelles and Les Films de l’Etang (Belgium) 30 feature films as well as a large number of shorts. His credits include Unter Bauern, Place Vendôme, Every Body Famous (2001 Academy Award nomination), Ginostra, Slogans (Director’s Fortnight, Cannes 2002), C’est Gradiva Qui Vous Appelle (Venice Mostra 2006) and La Methode Bourchnikov (Cesar nomination 2005).

Judelewicz has collaborated again with Vintner’s Luck producers Chica Benadava and Ludi Boeken on his current production “Q” with director Laurent Bouhnik.

Amsterdam-born producer Ludi Boeken is an award winning former war correspondent, journalist and director. A prolific producer, he has produced over 14 feature films and 15 documentary features. Production credits include Cross My Heart (Prix Italia), Like a Boat out of Water (Unicef Prize, Berlin), Train de Vie (Sundance Audience Award 1999), and Altman’s Vincent and Theo. His 1981 documentary Who Killed Georgi Markov received an Emmy Award. 

Ludi Boeken also has three director credits, most recently for Unter Bauern.

American producer Laurie Parker has produced nine feature films. Her producer credits include What Sebastian Dreamt, Rough Magic; Jane Campion’s In the Cut and Gus van Sant’s Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and My Own Private Idaho. She has executive produced Trance, Afraid of the Dark and The Rapture. She was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and won a Nova Award for My Own Private Idaho.