“Agent of happiness” Amber sets out on a cross-country road trip surveying the satisfaction of the Bhutanese public, as this crowd-pleasing doco questions whether the Himalayan country really is the happiest place on Earth.
Festival Programme
Films — by Genre
- Activism
- Americana
- Animals
- Based on Books
- Body and Mind
- Cannes
- Comedy
- Coming of Age
- Crime
- Documentary
- Education
- Environment
- Family Ties
- Feminism
- Horror
- Human Rights
- Indigenous
- LGBTQIA+
- Love Stories
- Media and the Internet
- Music
- Māori/Pacific
- Politics
- Rebellion
- Refugee and Migrant Stories
- Religion
- Rural Life
- Sci-Fi
- Science & Technology
- Sports and Gaming
- Stylistic
- Thriller
- Travel
- WTF?
- War Zones
- Women Make Docs
- Women Make Features
- Youth
Indigenous
Alien Weaponry: Kua Tupu Te Ara
Even if you’re not a fan of heavy metal, you can’t help but admire Alien Weaponry. If not for their rise to fame on an international scale, then for being the first band of the genre to sing in te reo Māori.
The Monk and the Gun
Is “political freedom” worth the cost of familial or social discord? When Bhutan’s king abdicates in favour of democratic reform, a strange series of events unfolds, where the old and the new collide in wondrous fashion.
New Zealand's Best 2024
The year’s best New Zealand short films as chosen by guest selector, Gerard Johnstone.
Ngā Whanaunga Māori Pasifika Shorts 2024
Support these Māori and Pasifika films at screenings all across the motu.
No Other Land
Filmed in Palestine between 2019 and 2023, No Other Land is a documentary film performing its calling. An urgent and irresistible reminder as to why we choose to understand the world, and others, through cinema.
We Were Dangerous
Earning director Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu the Special Jury Prize for Filmmaking at SXSW this year, this electric debut launches our festival with a fiery trio of delinquent schoolgirls railing against the colonial system in 1950s New Zealand.