It is naturally inevitable that way too many terrific films in a year of film viewing and selecting get left off a list as condensed as this. But they have not been forgotten. I sometimes get around this dilemma by sneaking in mentions in this introduction, but naming them here would make for a very, very long list. My selection this year is heavily skewed toward Cannes (a mighty crop this year), mainly because it was my most recent festival port of call for this year’s NZIFF programme, and these films are fresh in my mind. But others, like Aki Kaurismäki’s The Other Side of Hope, have also lingered for a long time – his wonderful film has been with me since February, when I had the huge enjoyment of seeing it at the Berlinale. Austerlitz is another (there, I did sneak a title in!) – Sergei Loznitsa is one of my favourite filmmakers, so I am thrilled that we are showing two of his films this year (his A Gentle Creature is on my list). There are, of course, also many films I have not yet seen, including the rich selection of local titles, and which I am very much looking forward to seeing.
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: Sandra Reid
![20th Century Women](/assets/resized/sm/upload/7q/ye/fy/03/1_TEMP%20KEY%2020CW_05092-pop-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=613c35179f)
20th Century Women
Annette Bening captivates as a single mother enlisting Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning to help raise her 15-year-old son in this funny, nuanced memoir of late-70s lifestyles from director Mike Mills (Beginners).
![BPM (Beats Per Minute)](/assets/resized/sm/upload/np/0l/1q/us/120BattementsParMinute%E2%88%8FCeline_Nieszawer_Photo087_KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=158f7b6c57)
BPM (Beats Per Minute)
120 battements par minute
A wary newcomer to the radical activist life risks his heart with one of its firecracker stars in this stirring and moving exploration of the ACT UP movement that protested government inaction on AIDS in the 90s.
![Faces Places](/assets/resized/sm/upload/45/xm/or/dv/AVJR%20Goat%20South%20KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=534f7a62ee)
Faces Places
Visages villages
In this utterly charming documentary, octogenarian French director Agnès Varda takes to the road with the young photo-muralist JR, creating artworks, looking up old friends and finding new ones.
![Gabriel and the Mountain](/assets/resized/sm/upload/m4/ft/g1/si/05_00111761_KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=eaca3f865f)
Gabriel and the Mountain
Gabriel e a montanha
Brazilian Fellipe Barbosa’s richly layered road movie retraces his friend’s Africa-on-$3-a-day travels through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia, based on the fond recollections of the people he befriended along the way.
![I Am Not Your Negro](/assets/resized/sm/upload/cp/jr/np/oj/6_KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=eba0d090d9)
I Am Not Your Negro
This Oscar-nominated documentary draws an astonishing, challenging and utterly contemporary examination of race in the United States entirely from the writings and interview footage of civil rights icon James Baldwin.
![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.
![The Other Side of Hope](/assets/resized/sm/upload/oq/7i/tq/o1/L_AUTRE_COTE_DE_L_ESPOIR_photo4%EF%BF%BDSputnik_Oy_(Photographe_Malla_Hukkanen)%20KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=e300ecc3b3)
The Other Side of Hope
Toivon tuolla puolen
A Syrian stowaway lands up in Helsinki and finds refuge working in the worst restaurant in town in this funny, gorgeously filmed new tragicomedy from Finland hangdog maestro, Aki Kaurismäki.
![The Square](/assets/resized/sm/upload/js/pa/jr/vy/THE%20SQUARE%201%20KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=d305da502c)
The Square
Winner of the Cannes Palme d’Or, Ruben Östlund’s The Square is an astounding work of social satire centred on a Swedish art museum and a PR stunt that goes horribly wrong. Starring Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, Terry Notary.
![Summer 1993](/assets/resized/sm/upload/dk/yd/tb/vb/1%20key%20still-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=706211169b)
Summer 1993
Estiu 1993
Catalan director Carla Simón’s award-winning dramatisation of her own experience as a six-year-old orphan adjusting to a new life in the country features the most remarkable and mesmerising child performances in years.
![The Teacher](/assets/resized/sm/upload/i5/eg/22/f7/go-1%20KEY-0-520-0-390-crop.jpg?k=15f457714a)
The Teacher
Učitelka
When accused of bartering her students’ grades for goods and services provided by their parents, a schoolteacher mounts a devious defence in this blackly funny dramedy set in the communist era.