Festival Programme

Films by Venue

Massey University National Academy of Screen Arts Cinema

2000 Meters to Andriivka

2000 metriv do Andriyivky

Mstyslav Chernov

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.

Abang Adik

Jin Ong

Two undocumented brothers live on the edges of Malaysian society, one quiet and law-abiding, the other reckless and furious. Jin Ong’s emotionally powerful debut is a moving story of love, injustice and survival.

Bati

Andrew John Fakaua Ponton

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.

Bring Them Down

Christopher Andrews

Set amongst the rugged countryside of Western Ireland, Christopher Abbot (Poor Things) and Barry Keoghan (Saltburn) deliver standout performances in a thriller that is as shocking as the landscape is serene.

Cactus Pears

Sabar bonda

Rohan Parashuram Kanawade

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.

Chain Reactions

Alexandre O. Philippe

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.

Crocodile Tears

Air mata buaya

Tumpal Tampubolon

Generational tension comes to the fore in Tumpal Tampubolon’s atmospheric debut focusing on the relationship between a neurotic mother and her son as life in their crocodile park starts to crumble.

Ebony and Ivory

Jim Hosking

If you're looking for the wildest film of the fest this year, look no further! Ebony and Ivory is here on a nugget slide to melt your brain with absurd humour that becomes so delirious that it turns into a nightmare.

Ellis Park

Justin Kurzel

Australian composer Warren Ellis takes us through a personal tour of music, addiction, rehabilitation and animal conservatism in this inspiring and seamless blend of music biography and environmental advocacy.

Happyend

Neo Sora

Coolly compelling and disturbingly plausible, Neo Sora's debut feature is a dystopian teen drama where surveillance, friendship, and political truth collide in near-future Tokyo.

Hard Boiled

Lat sau san taam

John Woo

John Woo's influential cops vs. gangsters gun-fu classic comes back to the big screen with a pristine 4K remaster making it a perfect time to revisit or discover one of the greatest action films of all time.

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell

Bên trong vỏ kén vàng

Pham Thien An

A hypnotic and otherworldly first feature following a man’s mystical journey from the city to his remote home village. Populated with long and immersive takes that highlight the beauty of rural Vietnam.

Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989

Israel Palestina på Svensk TV 1958-1989

Göran Hugo Olsson

The long, muddled history of the foundation of Israel and the annexation of Palestine are explored with remarkable objectivity and moral clarity in this gripping and essential documentary composed entirely of rare archival footage from Swedish TV.

Jim's Story

Le roman de Jim

Arnaud Larrieu, Jean-Marie Larrieu

When Jim's biological father comes back into the picture after years of being absent, a family questions the true meaning of the word, father. A heartwarming story set against the backdrop of rural France.

Kaikohe Blood & Fire

Simon Ogston

Two very different MMA fighters from the Far North seek glory inside the ring and to inspire their community in this action-packed and absorbing fly-on-the-wall documentary about small town heroes with big hearts.

Life in One Chord

Margaret Gordon

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.

Love

Kjærlighet

Dag Johan Haugerud

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.

Magellan

Magalhães

Lav Diaz

Legendary Filipino auteur Lav Diaz recounts a decade in the life of famed explorer Ferdinand Magellan in haunting and poetic fashion, following his colonisation of SE Asia and his tragic descent into damnation.

Misericordia

Miséricorde

Alain Guiraudie

French auteur Alain Guiraudie continues his Hitchcockian streak with this slippery, eccentric story of a provincial French family in mourning and the chaos that arrives with the prodigal return of a disquieting family friend.

My Father's Shadow

Akinola Davies Jr

Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù gives a masterful performance as a stern but loving father that takes his children on an impromptu day trip to Lagos to recover a debt in the midst of a political upheaval.

OBEX

Albert Birney

A reclusive nerd must enter a video game to fight a demon and rescue his dog in this quirky feast of horror, comedy and sci-fi with old-school gaming aesthetics thrown into a blender with Lynchian dread.

Pavements

Alex Ross Perry

Maverick filmmaker Alex Ross Perry takes on cult indie rockers Pavement to deliver a music doco unlike anything you’ve seen before. A fittingly absurd and satirical tribute to a band that defined a generation.

Peacock

Pfau - Bin ich echt?

Bernhard Wenger

Mattias spends his days pretending to be someone else, offering companionship to strangers in need. Bernhard Wenger’s unsettling drama quietly dissects loneliness, identity and the cost of always performing.

Sound of Falling

In die Sonne schauen

Mascha Schilinski

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.

Stranger Eyes

Mò shì lù

Yeo Siew Hua

In a world where everyone has a camera in their pocket, the government has cameras on street corners and businesses have cameras in their lobbies, when can you be sure that you're not being recorded and who can you trust?

TOITŪ Visual Sovereignty

Chelsea Winstanley

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.

A Useful Ghost 

Pee chai dai ka 

Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke 

After her death by dust poisoning, a woman returns as a haunted vacuum cleaner to comfort her grieving husband. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke blends absurd comedy and class politics into a fable that’s as strange as it is moving.

War Stories Our Mothers Never Told Us

Gaylene Preston

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.

Werckmeister Harmonies

Werckmeister harmóniák

Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky

Frequently singled out as one of the best films of the 21st century, Béla Tarr’s melancholy, mud-deep world of simmering mob chaos foretells of resurgent fascism in the heart of Europe.

Zodiac Killer Project

Charlie Shackleton

Not your average true crime doco, this witty and perceptive deconstruction of the genre is less about the infamous Zodiac Killer case itself, instead shifting focus to reexamine the way crime stories are told.