I am the NZIFF Auckland office intern and I pretty much live and breathe film. I am doing my masters in screen production specializing in documentary directing so as an aspiring filmmaker I love all types of narratives; fact and fiction. The film festival has always been my favourite time of the year and this year is no exception. I’m super excited about the programme, but here are my top picks.
Films — by Collection
- Dan Slevin
- David Larsen
- Florian Habicht
- Gemma Gracewood
- Jess Feast
- Jo Randerson
- Letterboxd
- Lindsay Shelton
- Peter Calder: From the Earth to the Stars
- RNZ: Simon Morris Chats to Bill Gosden
- Sandra Reid
- Staff Picks: Cass Hesom-Williams
- Staff Picks: Debbie Fish
- Staff Picks: Felicity Drace
- Staff Picks: Hayden Ellis
- Staff Picks: Jule Hartung
- Staff Picks: Kailey Carruthers
- Staff Picks: Leah Goffe Robertson
- Staff Picks: Lynn Smart
- Staff Picks: Megan Duffy
- Staff Picks: Melanie Rae
- Staff Picks: Michael McDonnell
- Staff Picks: Rebecca McMillan
- Staff Picks: Sarah Garven
- Staff Picks: Sarah McMullan
- Staff Picks: Vanessa Rushton
- The Lumière Reader
- The Pantograph Punch
- Wellington Film Society's Picks of NZIFF 2014
Staff Picks: Leah Goffe Robertson
20,000 Days on Earth
The legend of Nick Cave is explored and amplified in this seductive, music-filled documentary created in collaboration with British filmmaker/artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. “Thrilling to behold.” — Time Out
Frank
Michael Fassbender and Maggie Gyllenhall play fiercely avant-garde musicians in this weirdly celebratory satire of an obscure art rock band propelled via Twitter into the limelight.
Housebound
Welcome home to the Kiwi horror house comedy that took SXSW by storm. Gerard Johnstone’s brilliant genre mash-up stars Rima Te Wiata, Morgana O’Reilly, Glen-Paul Waru and Cameron Rhodes.
Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?
Director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Mood Indigo) and philosopher-activist Noam Chomsky talk about life and language in a conversation gorgeously illuminated with Gondry’s hand-drawn animations.
New Zealand’s Best 2014
For our third New Zealand’s Best short film competition Festival programmers Bill Gosden and Michael McDonnell viewed 115 submissions to make a shortlist of 12 from which filmmaker Andrew Adamson selected these six finalists.
Particle Fever
“This documentary accessibly conveys the science and the human drama behind the largest machine ever built – the Large Hadron Collider – and its crowning achievement, the discovery of the Higgs boson particle.” — Scientific American
Pulp: a Film about Life, Death & Supermarkets
NZer Florian Habicht’s acclaimed collaboration with Jarvis Cocker fixes the triumphant 2012 concert billed as Pulp’s last ever within a loving portrait of Sheffield and Sheffielders.
The Rover
Two unlikely travelling companions traverse the existential badlands of the Australian outback in Animal Kingdom director David Michôd’s intense and atmospheric picture of the lucky country gone feral.
The Skeleton Twins
Saturday Night Live veterans Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig are brilliant as long-estranged twins who reunite in a crisis in this warm, often outrageously funny dramedy of late-30-something angst. Also starring Luke Wilson.
We Are the Best!
Vi är bäst!
Swedish director Lukas Moodysson returns to the subversive high spirits of his earlier Show Me Love, adapting his wife’s graphic novel of 80s schoolgirl misfit friendship – and no-talent punkette attitude.