Vincent Ward, ONZM (born 16 February 1956) is a film director and screenwriter.
Vincent Ward was awarded an Order of New Zealand Merit in 2007 for his contribution to film making. He was born in Greytown, New Zealand. He was trained as an artist at the University of Canterbury.
Ward has earned international acclaim with a reputation for making films with a unique, deeply human vision.
Since his debut feature Vigil (1984), Ward’s films have consistently earned critical acclaim and festival attention whilst achieving a wide audience. Vigil, 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 for 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).
The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey won the major awards at both the Australian and New Zealand film industry awards. What Dreams May Come, starring Robin Williams, was nominated for two Academy Awards (best production design and best visual effects) and won the Oscar for best visual effects in 1999 grossing all territories more than US 200 million.
Whilst in the United States, Ward wrote the story for Alien 3 and for three years developed the material that was the basis of The Last Samurai, selecting its director, and acting as executive producer on that project before writing and directing River Queen ] - a woman's story of going into a 19th century (native) Maori community.
Ward began writing and directing films at 18. In 1978-1981 he made the documentary In Spring One Plants Alone, which won the Grand Prix at Cinema du Reel ] (Paris), and a Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival. In Spring One Plants Alone provides the starting-point for his new feature Rain of the Children.
Voted by the audience from 250 feature films Rain of the Children won the Grand Prix at Era New Horizons Film Festival - a major International Film Festival in Poland. The film was nominated for best director and won best composer at the Qantas Film and TV Awards in New Zealand. Vincent Ward has also just been nominated for best director at the Australian Directors Guild Awards for Rain of the Children.
