Last night, some families of Pike River mine victims, along with members of the cast and crew, attended the world premiere of Pike River at the Sydney Film Festival. 

The feature film tells the story of the Pike River mine tragedy that took the lives of 29 men back in November 2010. 

Told from the perspective of the families, the story centres on close friends Anna Osborne and Sonya Rockhouse, who both lost a family member in the explosion. 

Director Rob Sarkies says it was a 'special' experience seeing a packed audience engage with the film.

"There's so many reasons why it's important to me - it's clearly an enormous and very resonant New Zealand story. Those two words - Pike River - mean so much."

LISTEN ABOVE

• Pike River film to premiere in Sydney, images of movie's stars Melanie Lynskey and Robyn Malcolm released