Vincent Ward

Vincent Ward (born 16 February 1956) is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and artist.

His films have received international recognition at both the Academy Awards and the Cannes Film Festival.

Vincent Ward was born on 16 February 1956 near Greytown, New Zealand.

In 1978, at the age of 21, he shot A State of Siege, his debut short-feature film, which adapted a novel by Janet Frame.

It was released theatrically and reviewed by The Los Angeles Times who described it as, ‘Rigorously constructed with one exquisitely composed image following another ... film becomes poetry’.

The film won a Special Jury Prize at the Miami Film Festival 1978 and a Golden Hugo Award at the Chicago Film Festival that same year.

In 1978–81, Ward lived in remote Te Urewera with a Tūhoe woman named Puhi and her adult schizophrenic son Niki.

He attended Ilam School of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand where he received a Diploma in Fine Arts (with Honours) in 1981.

He made a documentary about them called In Spring One Plants Alone, which won the 1982 Grand Prix at Cinéma du Réel (Paris), and a Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival.

Ward's next three films, Vigil (1984), The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988) and Map of the Human Heart (1993) were the first films by a New Zealander to be officially selected ‘in competition’ at the Cannes Film Festival.

Between them they garnered close to 30 national and international awards (including the Grand Prix at festivals in Italy, Spain, Germany, France and the United States).

Vigil (1984), follows an imaginative, solitary child living on a remote farm and is partly inspired by Ward's own rural upbringing in the Wairarapa.

It was produced by John Maynard and shot in Taranaki.

Child actor Fiona Kay played the central role.

Ward's second feature, a fantasy-adventure film, The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988), was inspired by an experience he had in Germany.

He recounts attempting to cross the autobahn on foot and ending up dodging traffic.

The experience made such an impression on him, it was the key image that sparked the idea for the film.

And took home Best Film and Best Director at both the Australian and New Zealand film industry awards in 1989.

In 1990, Ward wrote the story for Alien 3, a proposed sequel to the film Aliens; Ward received a ‘story by’ credit on the final film.

In the 1990s Ward spent several years in and out of Hollywood, where he developed multiple projects before he signed on to direct What Dreams May Come (1998) a screenplay adapted by Ronald Bass from Richard Matheson's 1978 novel.

What Dreams May Come was released in the United States on 2,600 screens and starred Robin Williams, Annabella Sciorra, Cuba Gooding Jr.. and Max von Sydow.

It reached US$71 million in theatrical sales and performed strongly in the video market.

It was produced by Tim Bevan and Ward, and it was screened as a work in progress at Cannes Film Festival in 1992, it was later nominated for best film at the Australian Film Institute Awards.

American critic Roger Ebert praised its unpredictability and sense of adventure.

Ward's next film Map of the Human Heart (1993) charts a relationship between an Inuit boy, a Métis girl and a visiting British cartographer.

Ward and his co-writer Louis Nowra spent time travelling and researching the project together in Canada and Vincent went on to travel extensively in the Arctic before they began writing the script.

Ward suffered minor frostbite whilst location scouting in the Arctic that was still visible throughout the shoot.

The film stars Jason Scott Lee, Anne Parillaud and Patrick Bergin, and features John Cusack in a minor role.

He had a small part in Mike Figgis’ film Leaving Las Vegas (1995), and a larger role in Figgis’ next film One Night Stand (1997).

Rolling Stone's review hailed it as “A visionary film of rare courage and imperishable heart.” The film won the Grand Prix at four film festivals including; Sitges Film Festival, Fanta Film Festival, and Oporto Film Festival 1998/89.

The film was nominated for Best Production Design and Best Visual Effects at the 1999 Academy Awards and won an Oscar for visual effects.

It continues to be popular with audiences scoring 84% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The 2003 epic, The Last Samurai was based on a project Ward spent four years developing with the film's producers.

Eventually, after Ward approached several directors, including Francis Ford Coppola and Peter Weir, he got Edward Zwick to helm the film.

Ward was an executive producer of the film.

During his time in Hollywood, Ward became interested in acting and trained under acting coach Penny Allen.

The heart of his original script, known as ‘the monks in space’ version, was however not captured in the final film and has since been recognised by the London Times Online, who in 2008 gave it the top spot on their list of 'greatest sci-fi movies never made’.

In 2014 the University of Canterbury awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts and an adjunct professorship.

The Navigator follows a group of 14th-century Cumbrian villagers who tunnel through the earth, and find themselves in modern-day Auckland.

Ward says “what I wanted to do was look at the 20th Century through medieval eyes, its as if the demons of our contemporary world, our technological monsters of destruction, could be foreseen in the nightmares of medieval men”.