Big Girls Don't Cry (film)

Newcomer Ani Palmer shines in director Paloma Schneideman’s unflinching new coming of age drama, set in early-2000’s New Zealand.

Desperate to be cool, Sid (Palmer) is 14 years old and full of curiosity about sex, parties and the adult world. Surrounded by the background chimes of dial up internet, Sid spends her time in chatrooms and instant messenger, acting out fantasies that she’s too young to emotionally comprehend. When she’s brought into the world of the older, cooler kids at school, Sid has to navigate a world that she isn’t ready for.

Big Girls Don’t Cry is a complex, beautiful depiction of a young girl's navigation of sexuality, friendship and identity, set in the pre-smartphone world of 2006.

Schneideman’s film is the first produced feature from A Wave in the Ocean, a filmmaking course led by the acclaimed Jane Campion.