EXCLUSIVE: The documentary about former New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern that electrified in its Sundance debut has found a home.
Magnolia Pictures, HBO Documentary Films and CNN Films have joined forces to release Prime Minister in theaters on June 13, with special preview screenings featuring a live Q&A with Rt. Honorable Dame Jacinda Ardern on June 8.
Windows on HBO and CNN will follow, and the film will be streamed on Max. The film made its global premiere at the recent Sundance Film Festival where it won the Audience Award in the World Cinema Documentary Competition category. The docu provides a view inside the life of former New Zealand PM, capturing her through five tumultuous years in power as she redefined leadership on the world stage.
When Ardern took the top spot at age 37 to run New Zealand, she quickly discovered she and her mate Clark Gayford were pregnant with their first child. She was only the second female nation leader to give birth while on the job, and the initial press narrative — can a new mother govern while breast feeding — became frivolity when real crises arose that tested the mettle of an emerging leader.
Ardern found herself championing a successful ban of semi-automatic weapons after a devastating massacre rocked the country; she oversaw the decriminalizing of abortion; and she faced tough choices when Covid shut down the world. She leaned into the saving of lives more than the re-starting of the economy. Ardern then walked away and is now a climate rights activist who wrote her first major book, A Different Kind Of Power, and who among other things is a Senior Fellow in the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard.
Dame Ardern got a raucous reaction at her Sundance debut after the premiere of the film showed it is possible for the leader of a nation to be strong, without losing empathy.
“We’re thrilled at the opportunity to partner with our friends at HBO Documentary Films and CNN Films to bring audiences another bold work from the amazing team at Madison Wells,” said Magnolia Pictures co-CEOs Eamonn Bowles and Dori Begley.
Madison Wells founder/CEO and the film’s producer Gigi Pritzker said: “The combination of Magnolia, HBO and CNN is a best-in-class team to bring ‘Prime Minister’ to eager audiences across the U.S. and Canada. We are truly excited to be working together and for the journey ahead. We are so grateful to Jacinda, co-directors Michelle Walshe and Lindsay Utz, as well as the entire filmmaking team for making such a compelling, entertaining movie about modern leadership that we are certain will resonate now and well into the future.”
“I hope people can see in this story that I was human and that actually traits of kindness and empathy are also successful traits in leadership and politics, and that hopefully more people will emulate them,” said Ardern in an interview she gave to Deadline during Sundance.
International distribution plans for the film, including New Zealand, will be announced shortly.
Prime Minister is directed by Michelle Walshe and Lindsay Utz. Producers are Gigi Pritzker and Rachel Shane for Madison Wells, Cass Avery and Leon Kirkbeck for Dark Doris, Katie Peck for Prodigy and Clarke Gayford, who also serves as Cinematographer. Executive Producers are Chris Matson and Michael Cleaver for Divergent Pictures.
