One of the great incidental joys of Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival is discovering new music or hearing an old favourite blasting through a grunty cinema sound system. You can find all the tracks mentioned below on the festival’s playlist here.

The music docos are an obvious first port of call.

Giuseppe Tornatore’s Ennio takes us behind the scenes on the making of some of the most iconic movie music of all time, including, of course, the epic “The Ecstasy of Gold” from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Other favourites include the main theme to Rabbia e Tarantella directed by the Taviani Brothers, but perhaps more well-known these days for its use in Inglourious Basterds and Morricone’s collaboration with Joan Baez on the track “Here’s to You” from the Sacco & Vanzetti soundtrack. One of the great discoveries from the film is found in Morricone’s pop music arrangements. He worked on producing many amazing and catchy tracks throughout the 60s but a particular standout is “Se telefonando” sung by Italian pop star Mina with its distinctive three note theme based on a French police siren.

Little Richard: I Am Everything covers the stories behind his most iconic music, including the original X-rated lyrics to “Tutti Frutti”, but films geeks will probably recognise “The Girl Can’t Help It” the title track to Jayne Mansfield’s 1956 musical of the same name.

The Elephant 6 Recording Co. introduces us to the fertile family of bands that originated from the college town of Rushton, Louisiana in the early 90s before relocating further afield to Denver and Athens, Georgia. Key tracks include “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” from Neutral Milk Hotel’s identically named album and the Olivia Tremor Control’s “Love Athena”.

Seattle was also a vibrant music scene in the 90s and on the edge of the grunge explosion was Dylan Carlson’s Earth. Clyde Peterson’s documentary Even Hell Has Its Heroes chronicles the history of Earth and their distinctive drone metal style. The band recorded a completely new soundtrack for the documentary, so check out the track “Rocker” for a taste of their unique sound.

Kiwi band King Loser were also a scene to themselves as Cushla Dillon and Andrew Moore’s madcap documentary proves. The documentary features too many great tracks to mention, but “Troubled Land” distils their surf garage vibe into a track that could’ve been a lost 60s classic but was recorded in the mid-90s.

There’s also plenty of great music to be discovered scattered elsewhere throughout the programme.

Anton Corbijn’s Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) features plenty of great tracks from the likes of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, but the song that most sums up the themes of this documentary about some of the greatest album artwork of all time is 10cc’s “Art for Art’s Sake”.

D.Smith’s vibrant documentary Kokomo City features a wall-to-wall soundtrack of classic tracks and more leftfield selections including Randy Crawford’s “Street Life” and Roberta Flack’s “Feel Like Making Love”, while one of the many pleasures of De Humani Corporis Fabrica is the chance to hear New Order’s “Blue Monday” blasted in full for a cathartic ending to an intense sensory experience.

“Blue Monday” can also be heard briefly in Blue Jean which has an excellent 80s soundtrack owing to its setting in Thatcherite Britain including “Melodies of Love” by John Rocca’s Pink Rhythm and Letta Mbulu’s “Nomalizo”.

Another period film with a superb soundtrack is Goran Stolevski’s Of an Age, this time taking place over two time periods in the 90s and the early 00s which let the film’s music supervisor have fun choosing some choice atmospheric tracks like the flamenco disco of Azucar Moreno’s “Bandido”, Goran Bregović’s “Auscencia” from the Underground soundtrack and who wouldn’t want to dance to Nelly Furtado and Timbaland’s version of “Maneater” at a wedding.

Perhaps the festival film most built around its soundtrack though is Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days. It features a plethora of easy listening and rock classics like the Velvet Underground’s “Pale Blue Eyes” and I’m guessing Wenders took the title of his film from Lou Reed’s similarly named “Perfect Day”. The soundtrack also features Sachiko Kanenobu’s “Blue Fish” from her cult Japanese folk album Misora.

The most insidious earworm of the festival will no doubt prove to be Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band’s calypso cover of 50 Cent’s “P.I.M.P.” as those who have seen Anatomy of a Fall will no doubt attest. You’ll need to check out the film to figure out just how an instrumental hip-hop cover relates to this year’s Palme d’Or winner.

Some other great music moments in this year’s festival includes

• “Freight Train” by The Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group. As usual for Wes Anderson, Asteroid City’s soundtrack is meticulously put together this time with a collection of under-the-radar country & western tracks from the 50s.
• “Adonde Está la Libertad” by Pappo’s Blues. A 70s hard rock anthem from Argentina which viewers of The Delinquents will want to track down.
• “Meu Sangue Ferve Por Você” by Sidney Magal. AOR pop from Brazil featured in Pictures of Ghosts.
• “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire. This anthemic disco track proves to be the lifeblood of the city in the animated 80s New York of Robot Dreams.
• “In My Mind” by Austrian electro-popsters Wallners features heavily in Christian Petzold’s Afire.
• “Rumore” by Raffaella Carrá is an Italian disco banger and an energising vehicle for mother-child bonding in L’immensità.
• “Pyramid Song” by Radiohead makes a liberating closer for Inside, the art-heist survival thriller starring Willem Dafoe and an amazing collection of modern art.