After a year away from the Festival, I couldn’t stay away from the action (and occasional madness) any longer and I’m thrilled to be back with the team in Auckland. Being an avid cinephile, I enjoy all genres. My list has a bit of everything: dramas, classics, thrillers, documentaries, and the bizarre. In 2016, we have many exciting events including World Premieres, Q&A sessions with visiting and local filmmakers, and unique feature programmes within the festival – I can’t wait!
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: Melanie Rae
![Poi E: The Story of Our Song](/assets/resized/sm/upload/0y/x4/t7/ep/0F9A7085crop-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=fe0ea1b3e6)
Poi E: The Story of Our Song
NZIFF 2016 opens with the World Premiere screenings of the Kiwi feel-good movie of the year: Tearepa Kahi’s richly researched celebration of Dalvanius Prime and the many rivers that flowed into the making of ‘Poi E’.
![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.
![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.
![Thithi](/assets/resized/sm/upload/t8/3a/hw/pq/Thithi_KeyArt%20KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=bb877c0f52)
Thithi
From India’s southern state of Karnataka, this award-winning comic gem made by first-time director Raam Reddy charms with its easygoing naturalism, evocative setting and colourful cast of characters.
![The Eagle Huntress](/assets/resized/sm/upload/ob/we/1q/i9/KEY%2016598_EagleHuntress_still1_Aisholpan__byAsherSvidensky.jpg_cmyk-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=b1dc22bce5)
The Eagle Huntress
A 13-year-old nomadic Mongolian girl breaks a gender barrier to follow her father and train hunting eagles in this spectacular and entertaining documentary.
![Personal Shopper](/assets/resized/sm/upload/pt/np/ic/bn/KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=4285de6494)
Personal Shopper
Kristen Stewart reunites with Clouds of Sils Maria director Oliver Assayas to play a young American in Paris, buying haute couture for her celebrity boss, and seeking contact with the spirit of her dead twin brother.
![Neruda](/assets/resized/sm/upload/3m/k1/kt/1l/neruda-gael-garcia-bernal%20KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=256fed2dd7)
Neruda
Not your conventional biopic, this enthralling dramatic exploration of the legacy of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda conjures up a fiction in which he is pursued into political exile by an incompetent detective played by Gael García Bernal.
![Miss Sharon Jones!](/assets/resized/sm/upload/ca/ea/1b/5p/14.02.06_SharonJones1860%20KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=05e363c89a)
Miss Sharon Jones!
Academy Award-winning documentary maker Barbara Kopple delivers definitive proof, from show-stopping testimony in a small South Carolina church to Manhattan’s Beacon Theatre, that nobody raises the roof like Sharon Jones.
![Tanna](/assets/resized/sm/upload/0z/yh/ek/h0/6449_2%20KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=8ec0ee3a33)
Tanna
Australian documentary filmmakers Bentley Dean and Martin Butler collaborated with villagers in the Vanuatu highlands who’d never seen a movie to create this luminous tale of forbidden love and continuously evolving tradition.