It is an exciting time for the Hey Hey It’s Ester Blueburger filmmakers as they prepare to leave for Europe to attend the 58th Berlin International Film Festival where the film will have its World Premiere on February 10th.
Hey Hey It’s Ester Blueburger, the wonderfully charming all-Australian comedy for first time feature film writer/director Cathy Randall and first time producer Miriam Stein, has been selected to screen as part of Generation Kplus, a special section of Berlinale dedicated to films that look at the world from the viewpoint of children and youths. Twenty four promising feature films will contend for the Crystal Bear and around 50,000 moviegoers attend the premieres in the Zoo Palast cinema. The Berlinale is committed to supporting the next generation of film-makers and has a Best First Feature Award for the best debut film with prize-money of 50,000 Euros.
Also representing the film, and lending her support to the filmmakers in Berlin will be Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider, The Nativity), who stars as Esther’s best friend ‘Sunni’.
‘I’m extremely excited to be attending the Berlin Film Festival in support of this wonderful film and the filmmakers on their big night. I also look forward to travelling to Australia in March to promote the film locally’, says Castle-Hughes.
Castle-Hughes will not have her celluloid-sidekick in toe. Newcomer Danielle Catanzariti who plays the lead role of Esther, will be in Sydney fulfilling her commitment to Cate Blanchett’s stage production Blackbird. True to her passion for, and belief in Australian film, Blanchett has graciously agreed to introduce Catanzariti to the international audience via a taped message.
‘I was really surprised by Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueburger, it is told completely from a teenager’s perspective, yet it appeals to adults at the same time … Esther Blueburger is a character not seen on screen before … I found it a buoyant film; touching, funny and delightful,’ says Blanchett of the film.
Hey Hey It’s Ester Blueburger – a smart, rueful and dead-on portrait of life’s unending quest to fit in, and the girl who solves it by completely breaking out – introduces a feisty outsider hero unlike any other seen on screen. Esther Blueburger’s (Danielle Cantazariti) quest begins when she escapes from her Bat Mitzvah party and is befriended by Sunni (Keisha Castle-Hughes), the effortlessly cool girl who is everything Esther thinks she wants to be. With the help of Sunni, Esther goes AWOL from her ordinary life and leaves behind her malfunctioning Jewish family (Essie Davies, Russel Dykstra, Christian Byers) to hang out with Sunni’s far breezier and super-hip single mum Mary (Toni Collette) and attend Sunni’s forbidden public school as a Swedish exchange student.
Hey Hey It’s Ester Blueburger makes its World Premiere at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival on February 10th followed by an Australian national cinema release on March 20th and will be released under the Miramax banner.
[release from Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Australia]