News

Whanau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) today reveals its line-up of impressive New Zealand feature films that have been selected to screen at the 2022 festival so far. Rich in storytelling, the themes of resilience, survival, and hope run deep in many of the titles.

Making their feature film directorial debuts are Nina Nawalowalo with A Boy Called Piano – The Story of Fa'amoana John Luafutu, and Welby Ings with Punch.

Adapted from the stage to the screen, A Boy Called Piano is an incredibly moving documentary detailing the remarkable story of Fa’amoana’s time as a state ward in the 1960’s and the intergenerational impacts of these experiences. The film was recently awarded Best Feature Documentary at the Montreal Independent Film Festival.

Punch, shot against the black sand backdrop of Tāmaki Makaurau’s West Coast beaches, has its world premiere at NZIFF 2022. This contemporary coming-of-age story set in small-town New Zealand stars Academy Award-nominee Tim Roth and newcomers Jordan Oosterhof and Conan Hayes.

Veteran independent documentary-maker Costa Botes (Forgotten Silver, Act of Kindness, Angie) returns to the festival with the world premiere of observational documentary When the Cows Come Home, charting the unusual life of musician, journalist, artist and

Continue reading…

NZIFF 2022 Dates and Venues
• Auckland: 28 July to 7 August at The Civic, ASB Waterfront Theatre, with weekend screenings at Hollywood Avondale
• Wellington: 4-14 August at The Embassy Theatre, Roxy Cinemas and Light House Cuba
• Christchurch: 5-7 August at The Isaac Theatre Royal, and 5 -14 August at Lumière Cinemas
• Dunedin: 11-21 August at Rialto Cinemas Dunedin

Regions (in date order)
• New Plymouth: 11-28 August at Len Lye Centre Cinema
• Masterton: 17-31 August at Regent3
• Gore: 18-25 August at SBS St James
• Hawke’s Bay: 18-28 August at Napier’s MTG Century Theatre
• Hamilton: 18-31 August at Lido Cinema
• Matakana: 18-28 August at Matakana Cinemas
• Nelson: 18-28 August at Pastorius-Waller Theatre, Suter Art Gallery
• Palmerston North: 18-28 August at Event Cinemas
• Tauranga: 18-28 August at Rialto Cinemas
• Timaru: 18-28 August at Moviemax

Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) today confirms its dates for this year’s festival for all 13 centres. The festival is also pleased to announce its return to Christchurch flagship venue, the Isaac Theatre Royal, for the garden city’s opening weekend.

NZIFF 2022 will now celebrate the city’s Opening Night Gala in Christchurch’s majestic Isaac Theatre Royal on Friday 5 August, following openings in Auckland at The Civic on Thursday 28 July and at The Embassy Theatre in Wellington on Thursday 4 August. The Isaac Theatre Royal will host weekend screenings across Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 August, with Lumière Cinemas will screen festival films from 5-14 August.

“We are delighted to confirm that the film festival will be back at the stunning Isaac Theatre Royal this year. We know that local audiences greatly enjoy the experience of heading to the ITR during our Christchurch season and it’s fantastic to have the on-going support from not only our flagship venue, but also the wonderful Lumière Cinemas, for 2022. There’s so much for Cantabrians to look forward to when the film festival rolls into town this winter!” said NZIFF’s General Manager Sally Woodfield.

“We are also delighted to announce

Continue reading…

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

Continue reading…

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

Continue reading…