Jacinda Ardern Documentary ‘Prime Minister’ Goes For Oscars

Who was the biggest star at the 2025 edition of Sundance? Jennifer Lopez, perhaps? Oscar winners Olivia Colman, Daniel Kaluuya? Maybe Sarah Jessica Parker, Rose Byrne or singer-actor Sara Bareilles.

Based on the gaga reaction of crowds on the street and at screenings, I would argue a star of the political world attracted the most enthusiasm, by a landslide: former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

The PM, who resigned from office in January 2023, came to Sundance for the world premiere of a documentary about her aptly titled Prime Minister, directed by Lindsay Utz and Michelle Walshe.

“We could not move anywhere without being stopped,” Utz recalls of their Sundance experience, noting that Ardern’s husband, the handsome and telegenic Clarke Gayford, turned plenty of heads as well.

The film, which recently premiered on CNN and is now streaming on HBO Max as well as CNN’s streaming service, charts Ardern’s unlikely ascent to the leadership of her country at the age of 37. She became Labor Party chief in 2017 after her predecessor abruptly resigned following the release of a grim public opinion poll that painted a dire picture of the party’s chances in the next general election. Ardern was elected party leader, but without the usual grooming that takes place to shape a potential leader’s image.

“I think what Jacinda did was show up unapologetically as herself,” Utz observed at a recent Q&A in Los Angeles. “She says that at the beginning of the film, nobody ever told her, ‘We’re going to focus group [you], we’re going to poll, you’ve got to be this way, you’ve got to be that way.’ She didn’t even know she was going to be the prime minister. So, she was really thrust into this, and she had no other choice but to be herself.”

That authenticity appealed to New Zealand voters, who defied expectations to keep the Labor Party in power, making Ardern the PM. She formally took office in October 2017, becoming the youngest world leader at the time. Her then-partner (now husband) Clarke began documenting Ardern as she rose to the upper echelons of power.

“In 2017, when I became the leader of the Labor Party, he just picked up his phone one day and started filming,” Ardern told Deadline at Sundance. “And we didn’t talk about why or what would happen with that. I think we both knew that we were on a journey that we didn’t know where it would lead, and it felt important to capture. So, as much as you can see in the film that I was relatively reluctant some of the time, I’m glad that he did.”