News

The New Zealand Film Festival Trust Board has completed a film festival refresh with appointments of a new Chair and a new Deputy Chair.

Catherine Fitzgerald ONZM, Chair for more than 20 years, indicated her intention to step aside during 2023 as part of a planned refresh which included a revised strategy, Te Ahua o te Whānau Mārama – a 10-year approach – appointment of a new Artistic Director, and refreshed Trust Board membership.

Fitzgerald is succeeded by Kaine Thompson. Thompson joined the Trust Board in April 2023, with Sharon Menzies and Toby Manhire. Thompson sits on a number of national and local arts and social services boards including the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Sharon Menzies was confirmed as Deputy Chair and also brings significant screen sector governance experience both in New Zealand and Australia and a proven track record in film financing.    

Thompson says, “We are grateful to Catherine for her deeply committed service as Chair, particularly through extremely challenging times. We are also grateful both Catherine and Robin continue their association with the Film Festival by accepting appointments as Trustees for another term.”

Film-makers, Fitzgerald and fellow long-serving trustee Robin Laing have both accepted appointments for a further term alongside

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The new film by an Academy-Award winning director, a Best International Feature Academy Award nominee, a widely acclaimed teen-vampire horror-comedy, an immersive journey into the work of a music legend, an Iranian meditation on love, loss and loneliness, and a portrait of a ground-breaking CNN camerawoman from Te Tairāwhiti are among the first announced films set to delight Kiwi audiences at this year’s Whānau Mārama New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) when it screens around the country this winter.

NZIFF 2024 Artistic Director Paolo Bertolin says, "A film festival is a space for encounter and dialogue. The communal experience of watching a film in a theatre brings together bodies and minds, sparking a conversation between the works of filmmakers and their audiences. Curating the programme of an international film festival does not simply mean choosing the best films available across the world at that time, it is a mission in facilitating a meeting between a film and its audience, providing opportunities for discovery, entertainment, and reflection. It is an equally exciting and challenging task.”

The 2024 NZIFF programme is made up of 10 strands, or sections. This structure provides audiences with clear insight of the cinematic experiences they can expect

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Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival will proudly present psychological thriller Foreign Body at Cannes Marché du Film’s prestigious Fantastic 7 finance market next month. 

Now in its sixth year, Fantastic 7 invites film festivals from around the world to showcase seven exciting works-in-progress from the global genre industry to an international network of investors, distributors, sales agents, and genre film enthusiasts during the Cannes Film Festival. 

The aim of the Fantastic 7 program is to nurture and promote these exciting rising talents, connecting them with potential business partners who could provide crucial funding and help extend their reach to broader audiences.  

In addition to NZIFF, other festivals represented in Fantastic 7 include SXSW Film & TV Festival (USA), Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia (Spain), Cairo International Film Festival (Egypt), Guadalajara International Film Festival (Mexico), Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Estonia), and Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (South Korea). 

Directed by Tom Sainsbury, and produced in New Zealand by Gabe Lunte, Milon Tesiram, and Jonathan Potton, Foreign Body is a psychological horror that follows Eduard, a European gap-year student who moves in with a New Zealand family to experience their ‘culture’, but quickly discovers the psychologically damaged and

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On Tuesday 24 April we gathered at NZIFF partner venue, Roxy Cinema, in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington to celebrate the arrival of 2024 Artistic Director Paolo Bertolin, who selected Paola Cortellesi's There's Still Tomorrow for a very special screening, attended by film industry moguls, patrons, sponsors, NZIFF staff and friends of the festival. 

Paolo personally introduced the film and greeted our guests beginning with a pēpeha, before going on to say: 

“I am truly humbled and grateful to be given the opportunity of working here as Artistic Director at Whānau Mārama. As a budding film buff in my teens, my cinematic upbringing was profoundly influenced by the emergence of great Antipodean filmmakers like Jane Campion and Peter Jackson in the late Eighties and early Nineties. It feels so serendipitous that after working for several years at the Venice International Film Festival, where Campion and Jackson won acclaim and awards respectively with An Angel at My Table and Heavenly Creatures, I am now in New Zealand to bring the best of international cinema to Aotearoa audiences. At the same time, I feel that this is an exciting moment to showcase and give prominence to NZ content, as a new generation of filmmakers

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We’re thrilled to announce the addition of six more regions for NZIFF 2024 with the festival set to screen in Kirikiriroa Hamilton, Ahuriri Napier, Whakatū Nelson, Ngāmotu New Plymouth, Whakaoriori Masterton, and Tauranga-moana Tauranga this August and September.

Following the announcement of our 2024 seasons in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Ōtepoti Dunedin, and Ōtautahi Christchurch last month, the festival has been working closely with a collective of independent cinema owners, operators, and local film societies with a view to including them in this year’s festival run.

We are delighted to bring NZIFF 2024 to the LIDO Cinema in Hamilton, MTG Century Theatre in Napier, State Cinemas in Nelson, Len Lye Cinema in New Plymouth, Regent 3 in Masterton and Luxe Cinemas in Tauranga and we’re immensely grateful to the cinemas and the local film societies for coming together to positively support and help facilitate a wider delivery of the festival.

Ross Churchouse, Partner in The LIDO Cinema Hamilton says, “We are dedicated to working in partnership with the NZIFF to secure the NZIFF in Hamilton in 2024 and beyond. This positive support and dedication to provide the festival to other provincial locations is reflected in the collective efforts

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