To me, the best way to enjoy NIZFF is to let yourself be surprised. So my watch list is a mixture of films made in different corners of the world, a blend of genres and a few intriguing, original titles - because who wouldn't want to watch a movie called Patti Cake$?
Films — by Collection
- At the Movies: Bill Gosden and Simon Morris
- Bill Gosden’s Guide to NZIFF 2017
- Coup De Main
- Letterboxd
- Metro: David Larsen
- Staff Picks: Abby Cattermole
- Staff Picks: Alice Vilardel
- Staff Picks: Ant Timpson
- Staff Picks: Beck Eleven
- Staff Picks: Hedda ten Holder
- Staff Picks: Ina Kinski
- Staff Picks: Jo Scott
- Staff Picks: Kailey Carruthers
- Staff Picks: Kezia Dwyer
- Staff Picks: Manali Bhatia
- Staff Picks: Miles Chan
- Staff Picks: Nick Paris
- Staff Picks: Rebecca McMillan
- Staff Picks: Sandra Reid
- Staff Picks: Tim Keats
- Staff Picks: Tim Wong
- The Residents: Lucy Revill
- Wellington Film Society
Staff Picks: Hedda ten Holder
![Happy End](/assets/resized/sm/upload/qi/0k/yw/qe/HAPPY%20END_KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=c998ba1298)
Happy End
Jean-Louis Trintignant is the failing patriarch and Isabelle Huppert his daughter in this satirical dissection of a powerful French construction dynasty from Austrian director Michael Haneke (Amour, Caché).
![I Am Not a Witch](/assets/resized/sm/upload/vk/8d/6z/08/I_Am_Not_A_Witch-1%20KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=f11595b093)
I Am Not a Witch
Set in Zambia, the birthplace of writer-director Rungano Nyoni, this strange, engrossing feature addresses the continuing marginalisation of ‘witches’ and revolves around a nine-year-old girl accused of witchcraft.
![Loveless](/assets/resized/sm/upload/31/ww/pj/ms/dsc3765%20KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=d3cecaf67b)
Loveless
Nelyubov
Andrey Zvyagintsev (Leviathan) won the Cannes Jury Prize for his stark and gripping tale of a divorcing couple caught in a missing-child procedural.
![My Life As a Courgette (Dubbed)](/assets/resized/sm/upload/kg/uc/x2/v7/1%20KEY_My_Life_as_a_Zucchini_05-crop-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=23d672a8f6)
My Life As a Courgette (Dubbed)
My Life As a Zucchini
This soulful and subversive Oscar-nominated feature uses stop-motion animation to tell the story of an orphan named Courgette. From the key animator on Fantastic Mr Fox, and adapted for the screen by Girlhood’s Céline Sciamma.
![Patti Cake$](/assets/resized/sm/upload/k2/a0/66/s8/KEY%20-%20Still%201_Danielle%20Macdonald%20as%20Patti%20Dombrowski%20in%20PATTI%20CAKE$_Credit_Jeong%20Park-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=f2b6cc41ca)
Patti Cake$
Music video director Geremy Jasper launches an unlikely rap star – a plus-size, white New Jersey rapper played by Aussie sensation Danielle Macdonald – in this high-energy feature debut.
![The Beguiled](/assets/resized/sm/upload/tx/53/uz/31/453391%20KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=4b7f40b773)
The Beguiled
Colin Farrell plays a wounded Civil War mercenary under the care of a commune of young women, led by Nicole Kidman, in Sofia Coppola’s beautiful, feminist take on Don Siegel’s 1971 Southern Gothic psychodrama.
![The Party](/assets/resized/sm/upload/ls/h0/hr/eb/Party,%20The%20KEY%20new-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=37c23375d3)
The Party
“This sketch of an ambitious Westminster politician and dinner-party hostess (Kristin Scott Thomas), whose life comes spectacularly apart before the canapés are even served, is a consummate drawing-room divertissement, played with relish by a dream ensemble.” — Guy Lodge, Variety