Oscar-winning war chronicler Mstyslav Chernov embeds with a Ukrainian unit in their last-ditch effort to reclaim a village, in a nerve-shredding reckoning with the Russian invasion’s relentless toll.

A documentary tribute to one of the nation’s best loved songwriters, charting Don McGlashan’s storied career from arty punk upstart to one of the strongest voices in the national identity of Aotearoa.

Framed with enchanting Fijian landscapes and carefully decorated with beautiful Fijian people and culture. A story about familiarity, growth, responsibility, love, respect and boxing… told in true Fiji style.

A washed-up songwriter drowns his sorrows as his former collaborator triumphantly opens Oklahoma! on Broadway. A career-peak performance by Ethan Hawke powers Richard Linklater’s theatrical drama.

In a future world where senior citizens are banished from society, a rebellious matriarch instead embarks on a fantastic Amazon adventure. Gabriel Mascaro’s film is an ode to life and freedom with no age restrictions.

Under the starry sky, two childhood friends realize that they want to share their future together. From the ashes of a funeral pyre, this debut feature from India resurrects an unspoken love with delicate and sensuous images.

A diverse ensemble of creatives including Stephen King, Takashi Miike and Karyn Kusama illuminate the enduring cultural legacy of Tobe Hooper’s low-budget 1974 slasher The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

A teenage girl recounts her crush for her teacher through the pages of a memoir. The winner of the Golden Bear 2025 is a lucid and tender chronicle of the unforgettable experience of first love.

A masterpiece of cinematic invention and political bravery, Jafar Panahi’s rousing new film deservedly won the Cannes Palme d’Or and opens NZIFF 2025 on a powerful and inspiring note.

The all-consuming dedication of the Japanese Kabuki artist gets its due in an ornate, decades-spanning spectacular of passion and pain that charts the journey of two young trainees.

Set in a gay-laxy far, far away this crowd pleasing and proudly queer Aussie adult animation delights with its vivid, candy-coloured palette, kinky sense of humour and catchy, upbeat musical numbers.

Punk renegade Shayne Carter (Straitjacket Fits, Dimmer) takes us on an iconoclastic tour through a career of highs and lows from suburban Dunedin to the heights of international fame and back again.

What is love? Through the stories of a straight woman and a gay man, Haugerud defies conventions with humor and compassion, in an eloquent and moving masterwork on human relations in the 21st century.

An intimate, rapturously-lensed exploration of a family struggling with a parental separation, Hlynur Pálmason’s mosaic of snapshots, dreams and memories finds gentle profundity in the slow march of time.

A perfectly rumpled Josh O’Connor’s criminal ambitions go awry in Kelly Reichardt’s arthouse art-heist film showcasing the American master of cinematic minimalism at her absolute best.

This thought-provoking documentary follows a “mistress dispeller” – a professional specialist in ending infidelity – and intimately interrogates marriage, loneliness and labour in contemporary China.

An aspiring novelist finds inspiration gurgling down the drain when his unconventional muse, a tropical fish, goes missing in this darkly absurd romp through the mean-ish streets of Auckland’s inner suburbs.

This immersive portrait of the time John and Yoko spent living in Greenwich Village is a vivid time capsule of America in the early 70s. A time of extreme political polarisation which may seem uncannily familiar.

A once-celebrated writer chases relevance through petty schemes, fading commissions and awkward self-promotion. Simón Mesa Soto’s character study is biting, funny and deeply attuned to the sadness of creative decline.

The uncharted highs and crashing lows of Jacinda Ardern’s time at the helm of Aotearoa get their due in an intimate-access international documentary about state power and human vulnerability.

Visionary director Bi Gan invites audiences to a journey through the ages of cinema. In a dazzling kaleidoscope of images, he keeps the flame of the undying love between cinema and audiences burning.

One of the standouts of Cannes 2025, Carla Simón’s personal exploration of the restlessness of a young woman without parents is a poignant example of the healing power of cinema.

Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho painstakingly recreates the Recife of the 70s dictatorship years in this sprawling, colourful spy thriller like no other. Winner of Best Director and Best Actor at Cannes.

Joachim Trier’s follow-up to his arthouse hit The Worst Person in the World, this piercing and ecstatically moving reflection on family and memory stars Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, and Elle Fanning.

Returning from last year’s Festival to screen alongside the rest of his Sex Dreams Love trilogy, Dag Johan Haugerud’s comic drama takes a candid and refreshing look at modern gender roles.

David Cronenberg’s sardonic self-portrait of his own struggle with grief is couched within a chilly and unsettling story of a tech-savant and his morbid invention which brings bereavement into the app age.

A father, accompanied by his son, goes looking for his daughter who has disappeared from a rave in Morocco. When the duo crosses paths with a group of misfits, their trip over the Atlas Mountains gradually becomes a coming-of-age odyssey.

German cinema celebrated the arrival of a bold new auteur in Cannes, as Mascha Schilinski unveiled her ghostly epic of women in one house visited by catastrophe and its echoes over generations.

A madcap comedy about the perils of open relationships from creative duo Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin that had audiences at Cannes roaring at every twist and refusal to take itself at all seriously.

Frequently cited as the greatest horror film ever made, Tobe Hooper’s raw, deeply disturbing journey into a sweaty, grimy, all-too-real hell still has the power to shake you to your core.

Unprecedented insight into the curation of the Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art exhibition reveals the struggle for Māori artistic sovereignty within the structures of Aotearoa New Zealand’s cultural institutions.

This gritty and empathetic portrait of addiction and the self-destruction that comes along with it is filled with pitch black humour. Frank Dillane puts on a masterclass as he takes his character to rock bottom.

Seven women reflect on the emotional cataclysm of World War II in Dame Gaylene Preston’s landmark contribution to the collective memory of Aotearoa, which has lost none of its raw power on its 30th anniversary.

Cannibalism, murder and betrayal are on the table in this riotous NZ horror comedy. Four holidaying friends come across a strain of weed that gives them the most extreme case of the munchies ever recorded.

An unsettling, sinister slow-burn thriller, Samuel Van Grinsven unites rising star Dacre Montgomery with Phantom Thread’s Vicky Krieps and New Zealand’s own Sarah Peirse for a supernatural chiller like no other.

Sophie Henderson and Curtis Vowell draw on real-life experiences for this delightful and nuanced romantic dramedy throwing a welcome spotlight on the legendary theatre spaces of Tāmaki Makaurau.

The Dardenne brothers return with a deeply affecting drama exploring the lives of five teen mothers. Hopes and fears steer the young women towards bettering their lives for themselves and their children.