Staff Picks: Michael McDonnell

Being a programmer for NZIFF I'm lucky enough to have seen a good portion of the selection already. A lot of my picks were my favourites from Berlin earlier this year. Standouts include the aptly named girl-meets-wolf whatsit Wild, the equally wacky mermaid musical The Lure and Lewis Klahr's fantastic short film compilation Sixty Six. Other great short films are on show in the Love-Sick Shorts programme particularly The Exquisite Corpus by Austrian found-footage maestro Peter Tscherkassky. French sports drama Mercenary is a smart and funny discovery, while Jim Jarmusch's Gimme Danger delivers just what you would expect and is a must for anyone who digs Iggy and The Stooges. Finally I'm most looking forward to catching up on a number of Cannes titles including Paterson, Neruda, Elle and Endless Poetry.