News

Whānau Mārama New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) is pleased to announce 86 feature films and 19 shorts in the 2024 line-up. We will open in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington on 31 July before touring nine other centres across the country until 4 September.

The 2024 programme includes 12 New Zealand films, plus a special 30th anniversary screening of Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures.

NZIFF 2024 Artistic Director Paolo Bertolin says, “This year’s programme is a celebration of the diversity and plurality of contemporary cinema. Our audiences will enjoy films that move, thrill and keep them on the edge of their seats, while also having the opportunity to experience films that open conversations about the reality of the world today, asking necessary questions and probing into uncomfortable truths. Cinephiles will rejoice with the latest efforts from world-class masters and discoveries that signal new talents of tomorrow. 

“At the forefront of this rich mosaic is a contingent of productions from Aotearoa, showcasing a vibrant vitality equally present in features, documentaries and shorts. Jackson’s classic had its world premiere as the Opening Film of the 1994 festival, with then-Festival Director Bill Gosden hailing it as a ‘landmark in New Zealand cinema’. Soon after, it

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Whānau Mārama New Zealand International Film Festival is pleased to announce the selection of 16 films in the 2024 programme which are coming to the festival straight off the back of this year’s prestigious Cannes Film Festival. It is a showcase of the very best of international cinema, and includes celebrated directors and award-winning performances.

“These films represent a pinnacle of global cinema,” says NZIFF 2024 Artistic Director Paolo Bertolin. “We are excited to bring such a rich and varied selection to Aotearoa, and we know these films will inspire, challenge, and enchant our festival-goers.”

Featuring in the Big Nights strand as the Closing Night Film of NZIFF 2024 is The Substance, a satirical feminist body horror by Coralie Fargeat. Starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid, the film, which won Best Screenplay at Cannes, tells the story of a fading celebrity who uses a black-market drug to temporarily create a younger, better version of herself.

The programme’s Fresh strand features films from Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight and Un Certain Regard sections. Good One by India Donaldson (daughter of New Zealand cinema legend Roger Donaldson) captures the dynamics of a father-daughter relationship during a backpacking trip in the Catskill Mountains.

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Whānau Mārama New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) is delighted to announce the line-up of exceptional New Zealand-made feature films, documentaries, and shorts in the 2024 programme, showcasing the increasingly rich talent and diverse storytelling in New Zealand filmmaking.

Twelve full-length films and 19 shorts make up the Māhutonga strand of our programme – a selection of stand-out New Zealand features and documentaries curated by 2024 Artistic Director Paolo Bertolin, Head of Programming Michael McDonnell, and Junior Programmers Amanda Jane Robinson and Huia Haupapa, and shorts selected by long-time co-curators Leo Koziol and Craig Fasi, and 2024 guest selector Gerard Johnstone. The Māhutonga strand is proudly supported by Creative New Zealand.

Bertolin says, “Aotearoa cinema has reached a defining crossroad. The 12 features and four combined programmes of shorts in Māhutonga reflect the diversity and wealth of subjects and styles in local storytelling. With their films, New Zealand filmmakers provide a vibrant kaleidoscope that enables audiences to look at the past and the present through distinctive perspectives.

“In this selection, our audiences will discover films that are entertaining, thought-provoking, and deeply affecting. Most of all, they will find a space for conversation and exchange on the beauty and complexity of life

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The New Zealand Film Festival Trust Board has completed a film festival refresh with appointments of a new Chair and a new Deputy Chair.

Catherine Fitzgerald ONZM, Chair for more than 20 years, indicated her intention to step aside during 2023 as part of a planned refresh which included a revised strategy, Te Ahua o te Whānau Mārama – a 10-year approach – appointment of a new Artistic Director, and refreshed Trust Board membership.

Fitzgerald is succeeded by Kaine Thompson. Thompson joined the Trust Board in April 2023, with Sharon Menzies and Toby Manhire. Thompson sits on a number of national and local arts and social services boards including the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Sharon Menzies was confirmed as Deputy Chair and also brings significant screen sector governance experience both in New Zealand and Australia and a proven track record in film financing.    

Thompson says, “We are grateful to Catherine for her deeply committed service as Chair, particularly through extremely challenging times. We are also grateful both Catherine and Robin continue their association with the Film Festival by accepting appointments as Trustees for another term.”

Film-makers, Fitzgerald and fellow long-serving trustee Robin Laing have both accepted appointments for a further term alongside

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The new film by an Academy-Award winning director, a Best International Feature Academy Award nominee, a widely acclaimed teen-vampire horror-comedy, an immersive journey into the work of a music legend, an Iranian meditation on love, loss and loneliness, and a portrait of a ground-breaking CNN camerawoman from Te Tairāwhiti are among the first announced films set to delight Kiwi audiences at this year’s Whānau Mārama New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) when it screens around the country this winter.

NZIFF 2024 Artistic Director Paolo Bertolin says, "A film festival is a space for encounter and dialogue. The communal experience of watching a film in a theatre brings together bodies and minds, sparking a conversation between the works of filmmakers and their audiences. Curating the programme of an international film festival does not simply mean choosing the best films available across the world at that time, it is a mission in facilitating a meeting between a film and its audience, providing opportunities for discovery, entertainment, and reflection. It is an equally exciting and challenging task.”

The 2024 NZIFF programme is made up of 10 strands, or sections. This structure provides audiences with clear insight of the cinematic experiences they can expect

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