Acclaimed LGBTQ+ drama and coming-of-age tale Big Girls Don’t Cry takes an unflinching look at the blurred lines between envy and desire in adolescence.
Set in rural New Zealand in the summer of 2006, 14-year-old Sid navigates her ever-growing boredom and her distant father. With a borrowed MSN account, she begins watching and mimicking the older teens who seem to move through the world so easily. What begins as envy turns into something else as Sid spends a transformative summer discovering desire and identity.
The film stars newcomer Ani Palmer as Sid, Noah Taylor (Peaky Blinders, The Year My Voice Broke, Submarine) as Leo, Sid’s father, and Rain Spencer (Good Girl Jane, The Summer I Turned Pretty) as Freya.
This is the debut feature from New Zealand writer/director Paloma Schneideman. Big Girls Don’t Cry is deeply personal for Schneideman, basing the film, in some part, around her own adolescence growing up in rural New Zealand. With a story five years in the making, Schneideman said she made the film for her 14-year-old self.
View this post on Instagram
“Sid, our protagonist, is a 14-year-old girl who wants so badly to be seen, to be chosen, that she hides inside versions of herself that aren’t real. She mimics, seduces, provokes. She performs identities like costumes. A girl who can’t cry. A girl whose deep shame forces her to act bravely.”
Producer and acclaimed director Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog, The Piano) mentored Schneideman, reminding the director that Sid’s character needed “an innate charisma, someone you could watch do absolutely nothing and still be fascinating.”
Fortunately, they found these qualities immediately in Ani Palmer, with the director recognising her acting abilities seconds into her audition tape: “I felt it, the stillness, the vulnerability, the unspoken pull.”
Big Girls Don’t Cry premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, followed by a UK premiere at BFI Flare, and later won the Grand Prix at Biarritz’s Nouvelles Vagues festival. Queer icon Kristen Stewart presented the award and said, “I loved this film with my whole heart.”
The production has recently returned home, releasing in New Zealand, and was met with critical acclaim. The Guardian praised the director, saying “Schneideman gets the small moments just right.”
Big Girls Don’t Cry will be released in Irish cinemas on Friday, November 27.
© 2026 GCN (Gay Community News). All rights reserved.
Support GCN
GCN is a free, vital resource for Ireland’s LGBTQ+ community since 1988.
GCN is a trading name of National LGBT Federation CLG, a registered charity - Charity Number: 20034580.
GCN relies on the generous support of the community and allies to sustain the crucial work that we do. Producing GCN is costly, and, in an industry which has been hugely impacted by rising costs, we need your support to help sustain and grow this vital resource.
Supporting GCN for as little as €1.99 per month will help us continue our work as Ireland’s free, independent LGBTQ+ media.