Massey University National Academy of Screen Arts Cinema

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.