Since discovering NZIFF and Incredibly Strange films way back when I was teen, NZIFF is my favourite thing about winter in the city! I have eclectic taste and my ‘can’t-wait-to-see’ list reflects the diversity of the programme – from Iranian horror Under the Shadow, to classic wuxia film A Touch of Zen and ‘truth is stranger than fiction’ style documentaries like Author: The JT LeRoy Story.
Films — by Collection
- Cactuslab
- Dominic Corry
- Dunedin Film Society: Raphael Richter-Gravier
- Letterboxd
- Staff Picks: Andrew Harrison
- Staff Picks: Ant Timpson
- Staff Picks: Bill Gosden
- Staff Picks: Caroline Palmer
- Staff Picks: Cianna Canning
- Staff Picks: Collette Wright
- Staff Picks: Felicity Drace
- Staff Picks: Hedda ten Holder
- Staff Picks: Jo Scott
- Staff Picks: Kailey Carruthers
- Staff Picks: Kate McGee
- Staff Picks: Lynn Smart
- Staff Picks: Melanie Rae
- Staff Picks: Michael McDonnell
- Staff Picks: Nic Marshall
- Staff Picks: Nick Paris
- Staff Picks: Rebecca McMillan
- Staff Picks: Rosie Jones
- Staff Picks: Sandra Reid
- Staff Picks: Tim Wong
- Wellington Film Society
Staff Picks: Kate McGee
![Chasing Asylum](/assets/resized/sm/upload/5e/4z/e4/48/Chasing%20Asylum%20Dogwoof%20documentary%20still%207%20KEY-web-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=1a30f391de)
Chasing Asylum
Defying the media bans inside the camps, this combination of whistle-blower testimony and illegal footage leaves no doubt about the cruel reality of Australia’s off-shore refugee detention centres.
![Midnight Special](/assets/resized/sm/upload/i8/vm/fv/cr/MS-02234%20KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=8ec0ee3a33)
Midnight Special
Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Adam Driver, Kirsten Dunst and newcomer Jaeden Lieberher star in this dazzling, genre-defying sci-fi/chase movie from the director of Mud and Take Shelter.
![Paterson](/assets/resized/sm/upload/v5/2a/1i/b5/_c__2016_-_Mary_Cybulski%20KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=be62c03a33)
Paterson
Direct from Cannes, Jim Jarmusch’s beautifully calibrated ode to art and ordinariness stars Adam Driver as a New Jersey bus driver who writes poetry in his downtime and Golshifteh Farahani as his cupcake chef wife.
![High-Rise](/assets/resized/sm/upload/kz/0d/85/j0/1%20KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=3db38069ff)
High-Rise
In Ben Wheatley's ambitious, wildly disorienting adaptation of the J.G. Ballard novel, tenants of a high-tech skyscraper slip into a literal class war. Starring Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller and Elisabeth Moss.
![The Dancer](/assets/resized/sm/upload/f2/id/bb/o9/ladanseuse02%20KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=57f408053a)
The Dancer
La danseuse
French singer Soko and Lily-Rose Depp star in this exquisitely dressed, spectacularly danced drama inspired by the true story of two rival pioneers of modern dance in late 19th-century Paris.
![Elle](/assets/resized/sm/upload/42/ea/sl/7m/Elle_03_rgb%20KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=0195efe0e3)
Elle
Genre subversive Paul Verhoeven, director of Basic Instinct and Black Book, teams up with the great Isabelle Huppert to craft this provocative, blackly comic thriller.
![Under the Shadow](/assets/resized/sm/upload/5y/yq/su/so/001-13%20KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=ab3ea26a3a)
Under the Shadow
This politically charged, spine-chilling debut from Iranian Babak Anvari is a tense and atmospheric thriller set in a haunted Tehran apartment during the terrifying final days of the Iran-Iraq War.
![The Handmaiden](/assets/resized/sm/upload/oa/23/ns/h5/THE-HANDMAIDEN-OFFICIAL-1ST-STILL-2%20KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=7f9d9e0e9e)
The Handmaiden
Agassi
Based on Welsh novelist Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith, this outrageous and lusciously erotic thriller from the director of Oldboy transposes a Victorian tale of sex, duplicity and madness to 1930s Japanese-occupied Korea.
![Captain Fantastic](/assets/resized/sm/upload/zu/sf/4n/xw/CAPTAIN-FANTASTIC_ROSS_PHOTO6%20KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=aae6ce6792)
Captain Fantastic
Renaissance man Viggo Mortensen steals the show as a solo father whose idealistic way of raising his six children off the grid comes under attack in this energetic, comedic drama.