The New Zealand International Film Festival Teases Its 2018 Program with Nine Features

The New Zealand International Film Festival has dropped the first taste of its 2018 program. But before you spend weeks earmarking pages of must-see flicks, there are nine features festival organisers think you should hear about first.

Five of the films announced have all been popular requests into the NZIFF office in the past year. They include: romance drama Disobedience starring Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams, Harry Dean Stanton's final film Lucky, Cannes award-winner You Were Never Really Here starring Joaquin Phoenix, period piece Zama from Argentinian auteur Lucrecia Martel, and RGB, a documentary on pioneering women's rights activist and pop culture icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

NZIFF last week announced the first four films for the 2018 program. All New Zealand premieres, they include Alexandra Dean's documentary Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story following an adventurous woman and inventor better known as the embodiment of Hollywood sex and glamour; Leave No Trace, a haunting new film from the director of Winter's Bone featuring New Zealand actress Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie; Matangi/Maya/M.I.A, which follows the path of Sri Lankan musician M.I.A.; plus Kiwi director Pietra Brettkelly's Yellow Is Forbidden, following Chinese designer Guo Pei as she prepares to make her Paris debut.

The full NZIFF program will be available from Tuesday 26 June for Auckland and Friday 29 June for Wellington. The festival starts in Auckland on 19 July and Wellington on 27 July, 2018.

Image: Guo Pei.