I’m always looking for the films that make you feel something new or awaken what was dormant. Films that challenge and excite you then leave with a lasting impression. My picks for this year range from Cannes winners to a 15 year passion project of DIY animation. With so many titles on offer it’s hard to make a must-see list, but the gems are always there, sometimes you just have to take a risk and watch them.
Films — by Collection
- Dan Slevin
- David Larsen
- Florian Habicht
- Gemma Gracewood
- Jess Feast
- Jo Randerson
- Letterboxd
- Lindsay Shelton
- Peter Calder: From the Earth to the Stars
- RNZ: Simon Morris Chats to Bill Gosden
- Sandra Reid
- Staff Picks: Cass Hesom-Williams
- Staff Picks: Debbie Fish
- Staff Picks: Felicity Drace
- Staff Picks: Hayden Ellis
- Staff Picks: Jule Hartung
- Staff Picks: Kailey Carruthers
- Staff Picks: Leah Goffe Robertson
- Staff Picks: Lynn Smart
- Staff Picks: Megan Duffy
- Staff Picks: Melanie Rae
- Staff Picks: Michael McDonnell
- Staff Picks: Rebecca McMillan
- Staff Picks: Sarah Garven
- Staff Picks: Sarah McMullan
- Staff Picks: Vanessa Rushton
- The Lumière Reader
- The Pantograph Punch
- Wellington Film Society's Picks of NZIFF 2014
Staff Picks: Hayden Ellis
![Boyhood](/assets/resized/sm/upload/tl/ug/b5/zz/KEY%20Boyhood_HiRes_1-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=4ded092977)
Boyhood
Richard Linklater’s enthralling and moving drama of a boy’s progress from childhood to young manhood is truly unprecedented: it was shot over 12 years, capturing its star and his fellow cast as they themselves grew and changed.
![Consuming Spirits](/assets/resized/sm/upload/zv/le/tz/7p/KEY%20look%20whats%20that%20%20copy-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=876a4482ec)
Consuming Spirits
A comic nightmare of three strange characters connected by unsolved crimes and the local newspaper, Christopher Sullivan’s animated slice of small-town Americana is as far from family-friendly as animated features come.
![Eastern Boys](/assets/resized/sm/upload/ab/90/6c/fx/KEY%20eastern_boys_photo_2_@_les_films_de_pierre-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=138a7e1422)
Eastern Boys
A 50-something businessman gets more than he bargained for when he invites a young street hustler back to his apartment. Loaded with sexual tension, this superbly directed thriller never goes where you expect.
![Force Majeure](/assets/resized/sm/upload/jj/pc/89/ff/NEW%20KEY%20ImageVaultHandler-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=8db904ffb3)
Force Majeure
Turist
Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s Cannes sensation combines black comedy, social satire and probing psycho-drama as a model family comes apart on a skiing holiday in the French Alps.
![Leviathan](/assets/resized/sm/upload/o7/u0/32/wa/KEY%20LEVIATHAN-by-Andrey-Zvyaginstev-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=9092c5780b)
Leviathan
Direct from Competition in Cannes, the new film from the Russian director of The Return is an involving, magnificently envisaged and blackly funny tale of one man’s struggle in a densely corrupt world.
![Locke](/assets/resized/sm/upload/vx/iy/ln/hm/KEY%20L_FP_R1_050613_Untitled_1_70_1-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=5e30920c7b)
Locke
Tom Hardy mesmerises as a man dealing with crisis on all fronts, making and taking frantic phone calls as he steers his BMW through the night. Steven Knight’s breathless feat of real-time drama is set entirely inside the car.
![Under the Skin](/assets/resized/sm/upload/sv/6r/ig/6u/Under_The_Skin-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=bfb9b14b33)
Under the Skin
Scarlett Johansson is an alien creature in human guise cruising Glasgow on a mysterious mission to lure young men. Jonathan Glazer’s eerie spellbinder amalgamates chilling fantasy with covertly filmed reality.
![White God](/assets/resized/sm/upload/x0/w1/hu/mm/KEY%20WhiteGod-Still2-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=6d253cc4c2)
White God
Fehér isten
Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó’s audacious drama, about how a young girl’s separation from her dog leads to a full-blown canine uprising, won the Un Certain Regard Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
![Wild Tales](/assets/resized/sm/upload/ak/k2/wg/j6/KEY%20Relatos-salvajes-press-pic-5-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=c3c4b7d3b3)
Wild Tales
Relatos salvajes
A surprise Cannes sensation from Argentina, Wild Tales is a compendium of six lavishly produced shorts united by a theme of vengeance – the kind that explodes in spectacular outbursts, sometimes planned, sometimes not!
![The Wonders](/assets/resized/sm/upload/lv/xb/hf/e1/KEY%20LeMERAVIGLIE-Photo2-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=842e12b6b6)
The Wonders
Le meraviglie
This intimate portrait of a marvellously idiosyncratic family of beekeepers in the Italian countryside is a classic picture of children growing up in nature – and won its young director the Grand Prix at Cannes.