What an exercise in restraint. I don’t endorse restricting your own festival wishlist to a mere dozen. But IF you were forced to… then I recommend going no further than this fine selection of female voices, Cannes audience winners, animation storytelling, retro cinema, fresh adventures, and humour.
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: Rebecca McMillan
![Aquarius](/assets/resized/sm/upload/q3/6r/ef/sa/aquarius%202%20NEW%20KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=6f1f5eeb92)
Aquarius
Brazilian actress Sonia Braga has the role of her life in this engrossing and richly surprising portrait of a fiercely intelligent and independent woman fighting to save the apartment she loves from demolition.
![Toni Erdmann](/assets/resized/sm/upload/2v/5n/f1/ho/ToniErdmann_Still_01-SandraHuller_PeterSimonischek_credit%20Komplizen%20Film%20KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=1dcf648294)
Toni Erdmann
Hailed at Cannes as a brilliantly original comic masterpiece, Austrian writer/director Maren Ade’s epic of parent-child dysfunction centres on a father assailing his uptight corporate daughter with crazy pranks.
![The Red Turtle](/assets/resized/sm/upload/8t/8r/va/pb/latortuerouge04-web-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=447d422475)
The Red Turtle
La Tortue rouge
Studio Ghibli’s first international co-production is a ravishing castaway fable that combines beauty, mystery, drama and heartbreak – with not a word spoken. It’s a triumph for animator Michael Dudok de Wit.