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 while NZFFT rebuilds its base for the future and the festival expects to be back in all our usual venues plus a few more for 2023.

NZIFF 2022 will feature 50-60 films in the programme for the four main cities with the potential for Auckland to also have some additional films from the 2021 programme, and a smaller programme of films would screen in the regional centres.

And while the programme will feature fewer films in 2022, there will be a strong focus on festival films direct from Cannes and other major global festivals, together with providing an all-important showcase for New Zealand films – documentaries, features and the well-established shorts selections, New Zealand’s Best and Ngā Whanaunga Māori Pasifika Shorts.

The programming for 2022 is led by Head of Programming Michael McDonnell who has been part of the programming team at NZFFT for 21 years. He is supported by Paris-based Senior Programmer Sandra Reid who clocks up 28 years with NZFFT, and specialist programmers for the Incredibly Strange and Animation Now strands, together with programmers of films for all ages (Square Eyes), and Māori and Pasifika films.

The NZIFF programmers have been busy over the summer attending a variety of global film festivals including Sundance and Berlin, in search of the best films for NZIFF 2022. We look forward to announcing some of the films for NZIFF 2022 in coming weeks.