Gloriavale

Limelight Distribution has today announced the release date for Gloriavale. Directed by Australian/New Zealand creative team Noel Smyth and Fergus Grady (Camino Skies), the gripping expose on New Zealand’s most infamous and secretive religious group founded by Australian evangelist Neville Cooper who later assumed the name Hopeful Christian, is set to arrive in Australian cinemas on Thursday 3 November, 2022.

Selected for Cannes Film Festival Docs-in-progress and receiving its world premiere at New Zealand International Film Festival 2022, Gloriavale has quickly become one of the most talked about films of the year and New Zealand’s highest grossing local documentary in 2022.

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Directors Smyth and Grady said: “Bringing this film to life has been a lesson in perseverance. After overcoming lockdowns, legal dramas, new babies, and a whole myriad of other challenges, we are so happy to finally be bringing the film to Australian audiences. Like we were, I think they will be shocked to learn of what’s been going on so close to home.”

The observational documentary examines the widespread abuse inside the infamous Gloriavale Christian Community cult and the institutional failures that have allowed it to continue. With unprecedented access to the notoriously secretive community, the filmmakers follow a lone family as they mount a ground-breaking legal case against the cult’s powerful leaders. The true extent of Gloriavale’s crimes and the cruelty of its leaders is exposed as the Ready family risk losing their home, their community and those they love for a chance to bring positive change to Gloriavale.