In a former life I’ve covered NZIFF as editor of The Lumière Reader, and as recently as last year, been a guest filmmaker with the documentary Out of the Mist. This year I’ve come full circle as Publications Coordinator, managing the print programme and contributing notes for a number of films – among them Happy Hour, which I consider an early frontrunner for best of the fest. Les Démons, Cameraperson and Under the Sun I also rate highly, as I do the entire Retro strand, gloriously awash with singular big screen Westerns. Beyond those films, plenty else to look forward to at the festival itself, and far too many to list here.
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: Tim Wong
![After the Storm](/assets/resized/sm/upload/bm/yh/zd/89/KEY%20AFTER_THE_STORM_-_PHOTO_10_-_c_2016__FUJI_TELEVISION_NETWORK_BANDAI_VISUAL_AOI_Pro._Inc.GAGA_CORPORATION-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=e2ce4ece5c)
After the Storm
Umi yori mo mada fukaku
A formerly successful novelist tries to reconnect with his ex-wife and young son in this affectionate, shrewdly observed drama of family life from Japan’s unassuming master, Kore-eda Hirokazu (Our Little Sister).
![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.