Macquarie financed film, The Wannabes, the first Australian feature film screened at the Tribeca film festival

16 April 2003

Nick Giannopoulos’ highly-anticipated second feature film, The Wannabes, has been invited to hold its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival  in New York from 6-11 May, 2003. Nick Giannopoulos will attend as a guest of the Tribeca Film Festival and represent, The Wannabes, at its premiere on 8 May, 2003.

According to Peter Scarlet, the Executive Director of the Tribeca Film Festival, The Wannabes was a film which stood out from a crowded field of more than a thousand entries.

"We saw The Wannabes after we had watched more than a thousand entries and it seemed like just the kind of silly, crossing-cultural-boundaries fun we all need right now. Director Nick Giannopoulos and his team of comics have succeeded in making an uproarious farce. The very thought that we're world premiering it at the Tribeca Film Festival brings a smile to our faces," he said.

The Wannabes was fully funded by Macquarie Film Corporation and private investors. It was filmed in Melbourne in late 2002 and is due for national release in Australia in October 2003 by Hoyts Distribution.

Nick Giannopoulos, producer, co-writer, director of The Wannabes said: "I am thrilled The Wannabes is the first Australian feature film to be invited to the Tribeca Film Festival. The festival founder Robert De Niro was one of my heroes growing up, so I feel greatly honoured to have my first feature film as a director recognized in such a way. I hope I can do Australia proud."

Nick Giannopoulos has built a powerful reputation in theatre, television and film since the 1980s. He is widely recognised for the hit television series Acropolis Now and his hugely successful national theatre productions of Wogs Out of Work, Wogarama, Wogboys and Wog Story. His debut feature film, The Wog Boy has become an Australian classic, winning awards.

Jennie Hughes, Macquarie Filmed Investment Executive Vice President, said: "We are absolutely delighted that the film will screen at Tribeca. It's a real credit to Nick & his team and enhances Macquarie's growing track record in film financing."

In The Wannabes, Nick stars as a wannabe performer who becomes entangled with a wannabe crook changing both their lives forever.

In 2002, the Tribeca Film Institute successfully launched the First Annual Tribeca Film Festival. Created by Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro, the mission of the Tribeca Film Festival is to enable the international film community and the general public to experience the power of film by redefining the film festival experience. The Tribeca Film Festival was founded to celebrate New York City as a major filmmaking centre and to contribute to the long-term recovery of lower Manhattan.

Last year the inaugural festival became a critical and popular success. The festival included juried narrative, documentary and short film competitions; a Restored Classics series; a Best of New York series curated by Martin Scorsese; 13 major panel discussions; an all-day Family Festival and the premieres of studio films Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, About A Boy, Insomnia, and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.

Macquarie Film Corporation is one of only two companies licensed under the Film Licensed Investment Company Act 1998 (FLIC) which invested in eight feature films.

For further information, please contact:

Linda Airey
L.A. Publicity
Tel: (612) 9819 6913

Jennie Hughes
Macquarie Filmed Investments
Tel: (612) 8232 6896

Or visit the Tribeca Film Festival website: www.tribecafilmfestival.org