Overview
Over the past few months we've been teased with popular requests, award winners from Cannes and homegrown features in anticipation of the New Zealand International Film Festival dropping its full lineup. Dust off your highlighters, it's finally here and there's a mighty long list of flicks to work through — a total of 155 feature-length films from 40 countries will screen over 18 days beginning on Thursday 19 July.
The Auckland leg of the festival turns 50 this year and a series of retrospective screenings are planned to mark its anniversary. The lineup of films has been programmed by NZIFF Director Bill Gosden to reflect the range of cinema experiences that NZIFF has celebrated since 1969. The screenings will culminate with Buster Keaton's The General at the Civic with live musical performance by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra on Sunday 5 August. An exhibition of NZIFF posters and newspaper clippings from the archives will also be displayed at the ASB Waterfront Theatre during the festival.
NZIFF has previously announced that 29 films direct from Cannes Film Festival are confirmed to screen. Colombian crime saga Birds of Passage will open the festival on Thursday 19 July, while Soviet-era drama Cold War from director Pawel Pawlikowski will serve as the closing night film. Eleven come from the Competition section of the festival including Palme d'Or winner Shoplifters, Jury Prize winner Capharnaüm and Best Screenplay winners 3 Faces and Happy As Lazzaro.
Elsewhere on the 155-strong program, there's a 1990s techno dance musical full of gratuitous 3D sex scenes, a thriller which plays out entirely on computer screens, the Sundance grand jury prize winner, romance drama Disobedience starring Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams, Joaquin Phoenix in his 2017 Cannes best actor-winning role, the documentary about Japanese dot artist Yayoi Kusama, a critically acclaimed drama from Winter's Bone director Debra Granik, 49 features and documentaries from women film makers and 11 New Zealand-made films.
The 2018 NZIFF starts in Auckland on 19 July, 2018. See the full Auckland program here.