Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival

In for a screening? Why not grab a bite recommended by those who know the area best!

The Civic

Daniel Clarke, Director at Auckland Live, has great taste in performing arts & delicious pre- and post-show bites around The Civic. "East & Sunflower Thai Restaurant are delicious vegetarian/vegan restaurants and close to the venue. I highly recommend dining there if you are coming into the Aotea Arts Quarter to see a film". Plus, we hear they are on the menu for Restaurant Month.

Academy Cinemas

Nothing screams vintage quite like the boutique Academy Cinema, a hub of arthouse and independent films, this is the perfect place to grab your popcorn and nestle into the plush blue chairs. Venue Manager, Stefan Moon has some great advice if you're looking for a bite. "Dinner during the film festival is the biggest vibe, it makes for the best pre-film hangout with friends before heading to your first film, or a nice spot if you have a couple of hours in between films. If you want a delicious & cozy vibe Federal Deli is where I frequent. It's such a good vibe to meet friends and start the day with some incredible deli hash & pastrami, it's a festival highlight for me".

Bold new voices in international cinema

Ben’Imana (2026) | The Academy | 2 AUG | 5.45PM

Directed by Marie-Clémentine, Dusabejambo | Strand: Fresh

Winning the Camera D’or for best debut at Cannes, this powerful drama wrestles with truth, justice and forgiveness during community-based reconciliation proceedings eighteen years after the horrors of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

Elephants in the Fog (2026) | The Academy | 9 AUG | 3.45PM

Directed by Abinash Bikram Shah | Strand: Fresh

A missing daughter. A forbidden love. A community the world has never seen on screen – until now.

Goodbye, Cruel World (2026) | The Academy | 3 AUG, 10.45AM | 9 AUG, 9PM 

Directed by Félix de Givry | Strand: Fresh

A bullied 14-year-old sends farewell letters to his classmates and vanishes, but when a girl from his school spots him wandering the streets at night, the two begin to build a fragile, secret world of their own.

The stuff of dreams - or nightmares

Alpha  (2025) | The Academy | 5 AUG | 3.45PM 

Directed by Julia Ducournau | Strand: Nocturnal

Titane director Julia Ducournau’s third feature tackles the late 20th-century AIDS crisis in France through her distinctively vivid and brutal lens, a fiery film as visceral as it is profound.

Body Blow (2025) | The Academy | 3 AUG | 4.15PM

Directed by Dean Francis | Strand: Nocturnal

A neon-soaked plunge into Sydney's seductive queer underworld, Body Blow is an unashamedly camp genre-bending odyssey, on the cusp of bursting off-screen and into the audience.

The Fox (2025) | The Civic, 30 JUL, 9PM | The Academy, 7 AUG, 1.30PM

Directed by Dario Russo | Strand: Nocturnal

Upon discovering his fiancée’s affair, Nick makes a deal with a trickster fox in this sly and quirky ‘she'll be right’ Aussie comedy about the lengths (and shortcuts) we'll go for love.

Feel-good fun with your whānau

Arco (2025) | The Civic | 1 AUG | 12.30PM

Directed by Ugo Bienvenu | Strand: Wonderland

A hand-drawn wonder brimming with imagination and warmth, Arco is the kind of film that reminds you of the joy of discovery

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (2025) | The Civic | 2 AUG | 10AM

Directed by Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han | Strand: Wonderland

Amélie loves exploring everything her world has to offer, guided by her friend, Nishio-san, but everything changes when, on her third birthday, an event changes the course of her life forever.

Kiri and Lou go Raaa! (2026) | The Civic | 8 AUG | 10AM

Directed by Harry Sinclair, Antony Elworthy

A feisty little dinosaur and a gentle purple creature navigate big feelings and discover friendship in a beautifully handcrafted, musical adventure for kids and their grown-ups.

Famous faces

Father Mother Sister Brother (2025) | The Civic | 31 JUL, 10.45AM | 3 AUG, 8.30PM 

Directed by Jim Jarmusch | Cast: Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps

Indie cinema’s long-time King of Cool Jim Jarmusch finds mystery and melancholy alike in this triptych of family short stories, each grappling with the weight of shared history.

I Want Your Sex (2026) | The Civic | 1 AUG | 9PM

Directed by Gregg Araki | Cast: Olivia Wilde, Cooper Hoffman, Mason Gooding, Chase Sui Wonders, Daveed Diggs, Charli XCX

Provocative and horny as ever, New Queer Cinema icon Gregg Araki’s first film in over a decade is a riotous antidote to the Gen Z sex recession.

The Wizard of the Kremlin (2025) | The Civic | 5 AUG | 12.45PM 

Directed by Olivier Assayas | Cast: Jude Law, Paul Dano, Alicia Vikander, Tom Sturridge, Jeffrey Wright

Actors Jude Law and Paul Dano star as Putin and his propagandist in an epic political thriller by Olivier Assayas, that shows how brutal repression in Russia is puppet-mastered behind a veil of manufactured illusion.

From the treasure trove

Mysterious Skin (2004) | The Civic | 2 AUG | 8.45pm

Directed by Gregg Araki | Strand: Treasures

Newly restored, Gen-X icon Gregg Araki’s remarkable, aggressively over-censored coming of age classic grapples with the enduring spectre of child sexual abuse, presenting one of the auteur’s bleakest but most essential visions.

Betty Blue [Director’s Cut] (1986) | The Civic | 4 AUG | 12.30PM

Directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix | Strand: Treasures

The stylish, sexy global sensation of the mid-1980s has had an hour of material added that has underlined the film’s artistic qualities without losing any of the elements that originally seduced a generation 40 years ago. 

The Arch (1968) | The Academy | 8 AUG | 11.45AM

Directed by Shushuen T'ang | Strand: Treasures

Forbidden feelings surface when a stranger enters the life of a devoted widow in Hong Kong's original art house masterpiece, fully restored and resurrected for a new generation of cinephiles.