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Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) today reveals seven impressive titles from its highly anticipated 2022 programme.

Ali & Ava, Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song, Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time, Lost Illusions, Meet Me in the Bathroom, Navalny and The Good Boss are just a handful of the extraordinary international films that will be premiering in Aotearoa alongside homegrown features this winter when the festival brings its celebration of cinema to 13 cities and towns from 28 July.

“We’re incredibly excited to share this initial line-up from our 2022 programme,” said NZIFF’s Head of Programming Michael McDonnell.  

“Music fans will be delighted with the documentaries Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song, a film exploring the legendary singer-songwriter’s life through the prism of his most renowned song, and Meet Me in the Bathroom, a thrilling examination of New York’s rambunctious ’00s rock scene. Other documentaries include Robert B. Weide’s tribute to the extraordinary life of American author Kurt Vonnegut, Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time and the jaw-dropping fly-on-the-wall documentary Navalny which follows the attempted assassination of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

“As always, we have some exceptional films from Europe and the UK, including Spain’s 94th Academy

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As the excitement builds amongst the global film industry ahead of Cannes kicking off next month, NZIFF are proud to announce that we will be presenting film project The Cage at Cannes Marché du Film’s prestigious Fantastic 7 finance market this May.

Fantastic 7, now in its fourth year, showcases seven upcoming projects from the global genre industry, presented by seven different film festivals, to an international film industry network during the Cannes Film Festival, enabling its participating filmmakers to pitch to distributors, investors, and production representatives.

We are in very good company, with other festivals participating in Fantastic 7 including SXSW (USA), Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival (Catalonia), Toronto International Film Festival (Canada), Cairo International Film Festival (Egypt), Guadalajara International Film Festival (Mexico) and BIFAN – Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (South Korea).

The Cage is based on Brian Keene’s seminal horror novel and centres on hostages being held captive in a home electronics store who must escape from a fanatic who intends to use them as human sacrifices to summon an evil interstellar deity. The film will be directed by Paul Campion (The Devil’s Rock).

NZIFF General Manager Sally Woodfield says, “NZIFF is delighted to be putting forward The

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Here's the news you've been waiting for – Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival will be going ahead in July/August 2022 in 13 towns and cities.

The film festival will open in Auckland at the majestic The Civic on July 28, with Wellington opening the following week, Christchurch and Dunedin opening on August 11, with the regions – Hamilton, Tauranga, Hawke's Bay, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Masterton, Nelson, Timaru and Gore – to follow. Details of the regional festivals are still to be confirmed.

Having weathered two Covid-19 affected years, the 2022 edition will be a more focused version, shorter in duration in the main centres and some regional centres, fewer venues and fewer films, but with a commitment to retain the high quality of programming and calibre of titles which are at the heart of the film festival.

As well as The Civic, NZIFF 2022 in Auckland will also be at ASB Waterfront Theatre, with selected weekend screenings at Hollywood Avondale. In Wellington, NZIFF 2022 will be at Embassy Theatre and Roxy Cinemas, while in Christchurch the festival will be based at Lumière Cinemas, and in Dunedin screenings will be at Rialto Cinemas Dunedin.

This smaller scale festival was a one-off

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