Help us make film more accessible for children who may have never experienced the magic of the collective cinema experience.

The NZ Film Festival Trust is a charitable organisation that supports, encourages and enhances knowledge and understanding of cinema. We present a rich and diverse selection of films that expand the cinematic options of NZ audiences.

With your generous donation we can extend the NZIFF screening experience to a child from a low-decile/high-priority school.

‘Play-It-Forward’ by adding a $5 ticket donation for one school-aged child to attend an NZIFF Shorts For Schools Screening.

‘Play-It-Forward’ + Transport: Make NZIFF even more accessible by adding a $20 donation for one school-aged child to attend an NZIFF Shorts For Schools Screening. This donation helps us pay the ticket price, as well as charter bus fare.

When you complete your Ticketmaster NZIFF ticketing transaction you’ll be prompted to add your donation to your shopping cart.

With every donation of $5 or more you have the option to receive a tax deductible receipt from NZFFT.

The New Zealand Film Festival Trust has offered the NZIFF Shorts for Schools Screenings initiative since 2014, bringing school groups to iconic venues such as the Civic in Auckland, the Embassy in Wellington the Regent Theatre in Dunedin and the Isaac Theatre Royal in Christchurch, for custom-curated film programmes, with curriculum guides to support educators in the classroom. This education outreach actively and strategically connects young people aged 5 – 12 with NZIFF through a range of opportunities that encourage film engagement.

Through the For All Ages programme section and our NZIFF Schools Screenings we offer young New Zealand audiences the rare opportunity to access, watch and respond to a compelling selection of features and shorts on diverse subjects in a variety of genres and styles.

It is hard to underestimate the value of this experience for forming an appreciation for the arts, stimulating critical thought, and promoting media literacy through exposure to the positive experience of diverse non-mainstream international film and education through discussion.

After significantly exceeding our original target of 500 children in 2014, and steadily increasing the number of young attendees in the following years, we would like to further expand the Shorts for Schools programme by making it even more accessible. We are building communities and individual relationships year-by-year, and, as high demand for these ever-popular screenings indicate, now have educators advocating for our programming both within their schools and wider communities.

By presenting a positive experience of non-mainstream film at an early age, NZIFF screenings expand the intellectual and imaginative lives of school-age participants – cultivating active and discerning viewing, and encouraging self-discovery.

This year, with your help, we would especially like to engage schools with extremely limited resources in Christchurch by offering tickets to low socio-economic communities for free, and assisting with bus transportation. Children who would not normally have access to NZIFF will be introduced to ideas and peoples, which promote an understanding of the complexity of social, cultural, and environmental realities faced by young people the world over.