Aotearoa
NZIFF is proud to provide a big screen showcase for striking work made within our own shores. Documentary filmmakers have brought us a record number of films about New Zealanders this year – and our two regular short film programmes shine as bright as ever.
Ngā Whanaunga Māori Pasifika Shorts 2017
Check out the latest and best Māori and Pasifika short films as selected for NZIFF by Leo Koziol, Director of the Wairoa Māori Film Festival, and Craig Fasi, Director of the Pollywood Film Festival.
New Zealand’s Best 2017
Check out the year’s best New Zealand short films as chosen by this year’s guest selector Gaylene Preston, from a shortlist drawn up by NZIFF programmers from a total of 83 entries.
TEAM TIBET: Home away from Home 2017
Directed by Robin Greenberg
Thuten Kesang, New Zealand’s first Tibetan refugee in 1967, recounts his fascinating and inspiring story and the environmental and political issues that have made him a tireless advocate of the Tibetan cause.
Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web 2017
Directed by Annie Goldson
As Annie Goldson’s impressively detailed documentary clearly sets out the battle between Dotcom and the US Government and entertainment industry, it goes to the heart of ownership, privacy and piracy in the digital age.
Waru 2017
Directed by Briar Grace-Smith, Casey Kaa, Ainsley Gardiner, Katie Wolfe, Chelsea Cohen, Renae Maihi, Paula Jones, Awanui Simich-Pene
Eight Māori female directors have each contributed a sequence to this powerful and challenging feature which unfolds around the tangi of a small boy who died at the hands of his caregiver.
World
Help yourself to our pick of the features we have encountered in a year of intense engagement with international cinema. We do what we can to cover many bases, while always insisting on that certain indefinable quality. We pay attention too, to the films lavished with praise or box office success in their countries of origin.
The Beguiled 2017
Directed by Sofia Coppola
Colin Farrell plays a wounded Civil War mercenary under the care of a commune of young women, led by Nicole Kidman, in Sofia Coppola’s beautiful, feminist take on Don Siegel’s 1971 Southern Gothic psychodrama.
Animation NOW! 2017
A celebratory showcase of some of the year’s brightest and best animated shorts. If you’re looking to sample the animation ecosystem in all of its multi-coloured, variously shaped glories, there’s no better place to begin.
Ethel & Ernest 2016
Directed by Roger Mainwood
This animated adaptation of Raymond Briggs’ graphic memoir of his parents’ lives is both humble and profound, with gorgeous renderings of Briggs’ justly famous lines. Featuring the voices of Jim Broadbent and Brenda Blethyn.
Beatriz at Dinner 2017
Directed by Miguel Arteta
A holistic health worker (Salma Hayek) goes head to head with the one percent over dinner in this potently loaded dramedy by Miguel Arteta. With John Lithgow, Chloë Sevigny, Jay Duplass, Connie Britton.
For All ages
Animation for Kids 4+
We’ve searched all around the world and back again to shape this eclectic collection of imaginative and engaging animated short films – terrific viewing for both the very youngest of filmgoers and animation admiring grown-ups.
Animation for Kids 8+
Hold tight for a showcase of brilliant animated short films – curated for the curious. Whether you’re an inquisitive kid or long-time animation fan, there’s most certainly something for you.
Swallows and Amazons 2016
Directed by Philippa Lowthorpe
In this new adaptation of a British classic, four plucky kids escape the tedium of a housebound Lake District summer holiday, and set off on their own for capers of the dinghy sailing and foiling dastardly spies variety.
Born in China 2016
Directed by Lu Chuan
Disney’s famed nature documentary unit brings the epic journey of three animal families enduring China’s vast and unforgiving terrain spectacularly to the big screen.
Reality
Blue 2017
Directed by Karina Holden
Filmed over two years in Indonesia, the Philippines, Hawaii and Australia, this beautifully crafted wake-up call to the state of the earth’s oceans profiles inspiring individuals working to preserve and protect marine life.
Unrest 2017
Directed by Jennifer Brea
Suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome but told by her doctor it was all in her head, journalist and academic Jennifer Brea started filming from her bed, contacting other sufferers via Skype, to explore the little understood condition.
Kedi 2016
Directed by Ceyda Torun
More than just another example of cute kittens on camera, this documentary about the cats of Istanbul and the people who watch out for them exudes charm and insight that a million YouTube videos cannot match.
The Farthest 2017
Directed by Emer Reynolds
The incredible journey of the Voyager spaceship is retraced by the women and men closest to the action in this exhilarating big-screen documentary.
Fresh
A Ghost Story 2017
Directed by David Lowery
A simple story told with the simplest means, A Ghost Story tracks the progress of a ghost who can’t let go of the woman he loved and the house they shared, evoking a profoundly moving sense of existential disquiet.
My Life As a Courgette (Subtitled) 2016
Directed by Claude Barras
This soulful and subversive Oscar-nominated feature uses stop-motion animation to tell the story of an orphan named Courgette. From the key animator on Fantastic Mr Fox, and adapted for the screen by Girlhood’s Céline Sciamma.
Special Presentation
My Year with Helen 2017
Directed by Gaylene Preston
With unique access to high-ranking candidate Helen Clark, filmmaker Gaylene Preston casts a wry eye on proceedings as the United Nations chooses a new secretary general.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer 2017
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
Reuniting with his Lobster director, Colin Farrell plays a surgeon, husband and father of two whose placid domestic life is slowly, insidiously disrupted by the persistent demands of a teenage stalker. Also starring Nicole Kidman.
