Fantastic news for film lovers! Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival will be returning from August 7-18. Each year, this festival rolls out the red carpet and invites film buffs and fans from across Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland to step inside The Civic and escape into the many worlds offered by an exceptional selection of films curated from around the world!
The decades-long Auckland home of the Festival, The Civic brings a very special magic to the mix of highly anticipated dramas, comedies, documentaries, shorts, animations and more on offer in the annual film festival programme.
The NZIFF is pleased to announce 86 feature films and 19 shorts in the 2024 line-up, including 12 New Zealand films, plus a special 30th anniversary screening of Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures on August 12.
See some highlights below and the full programme here.
Aotearoa Film Focus Weekend
15-18 August | ASB Waterfront Theatre
This year, the New Zealand International Film Festival will present their first ever Aotearoa Film Focus Weekend! This special weekend of events and screenings will shine a light on Aotearoa New Zealand filmmakers, exclusively at ASB Waterfront Theatre.
This festival within a festival boasts workshops, panel discussions, filmmaker Q&A events, and exclusive screenings that cannot be seen anywhere else across the festival - all at the stunning ASB Waterfront Theatre. Clear your calendar and get yourself down to the harbour!
See all the schedule for the Aotearoa Film Focus Weekend, here
Image: Taki Rua Theatre - Breaking Barriers 2024
Flow 2024 | Wednesday 14 August, 6.15PM & Thursday 15 August, 1.30PM | The Civic
Directed by Gints Zilbalodis | Strand: Visions
Direct from wowing audiences at Cannes, this immersive animated wonder from Lativian director Gints Zilbalodis tells the surreal tale of an unlikely group of animals who must overcome their differences to survive a great flood.
My Favourite Cake 2024 | Sunday 18 August, 10AM | The Civic
Directed by Maryam Moghaddam, Behtash Sanaeeha | Strand: Portraits
Seventy-year-old Mahin has been living alone in Tehran since her husband died and her daughter left for Europe. One afternoon, tea with friends leads her to break her solitary routine and revitalise her love life.
The Teachers’ Lounge 2023 | Friday 9 August, 6.15PM & Wednesday 14 August, 10AM | The Civic
Directed by İlker Çatak | Strand: Widescreen
Driven by a captivating central performance, this unsettling Oscar-nominated classroom thriller thoughtfully probes the grey area of student care versus culpability, and to what degree our systems promote or constrain our humanity. Presented in association with Goethe Institut
(Top left: The Teachers' Lounge, top right: My Favourite Cake, bottom: Flow)
The Substance
Janet Planet
Never Look Away
Days Of Heaven
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person 2023 | Friday 9 August, 4PM | The Civic
Directed by Ariane Louis-Seize | Strand: Nocturnal
A sensitive vampire meets a depressed teenage boy in this deadpan romantic comedy about two loners connecting.
Janet Planet 2023 | Friday 9 August, 1.30PM | The Civic
Directed by Annie Baker | Strand: Fresh
Acclaimed playwright Annie Baker ruminates on the evolving relationship between an 11-year-old misfit and her single mother during the summer holidays in this intimately observed debut feature.
Days of Heaven 1978 | Sunday 11 August, 10AM & Tuesday 13 August, 1.15PM | The Civic
Directed by Terrence Malick | Strand: Treasures
Reclusive auteur Terrence Malick’s sophomore effort, beautifully restored in 4K, is a bewitching, visually ravishing pre-World War I fable of passion and betrayal on the sun-drenched Texas prairie.
Never Look Away 2024 | Thursday 15 August, 7PM & Friday 16 August, 10.15AM | ASB Waterfront Theatre
Directed by Lucy Lawless | Strand: Māhutonga
Lucy Lawless makes her directorial debut with a raucous documentary exploring the life of another warrior princess — fierce and fearless Kiwi war photojournalist Margaret Moth. Presented in association with NewstalkZB
The Substance 2024 | Sunday 18 August, 8.15PM | The Civic
Directed by Coralie Fargeat | Strand: Big Nights
Direct from wowing audiences at Cannes, Coralie Fargeat’s magnificent shocker closes out this year’s Festival in style and lays down her marker to take the crown as the new queen of carnage with this wildly entertaining feminist body-horror feast.
Pou Kōrero – Workshops
Thursday 15 August, 1.30–2.30PM | Villa Maria Gallery, ASB Waterfront Theatre
Winner of the Special Jury Award for Filmmaking this year at SXSW, Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu joins the festival to chat about her journey from winning NZ’s Best Short Film at NZIFF 2021 to opening this year’s festival with her debut feature We Were Dangerous. After making her mark at the helm of several short films, Stewart-Te Whiu will discuss lessons learnt moving from short film making to shooting your first feature. This informal conversation is an opportunity to hear from one of Aotearoa’s most promising filmmakers.
Free entry, registration essential. Registrations open from Friday 12 July.
Part of Aotearoa Film Focus Weekend. Limited to 50 participants. Presented in association with Women in Film and Television (WIFT).
Panel Discussions
Boosted Pathways | Sunday 18 August 1:30pm – 2:30pm | Villa Maria Gallery, ASB Waterfront Theatre
Want to get your film made but anxious about the current funding climate? Learn how to run a successful Boosted crowdfunding campaign from those who have been through it, in this engaging and purposeful discussion featuring Boosted Crowdfunding Lead Flynn Robson.
This will follow the screening of Short Connections which features Alyx Duncan's Boosted-supported short film The Sea Inside Her and Adi Parige's Boosted-supported short film The Lascar.
Indian Alternative Cinema | Sunday 18 August 5pm – 6pm | Wintergarden, The Civic
An opportunity to delve into the innovative world of Indian cinema outside the Bollywood system, looking both to the past and the future of alternative Indian filmmaking. Presented in association with Pan-Asian Screen Collective. This discussion follows the screening of All We Imagine As Light
Statues Also Die: On Repatriating and Reanimating Stolen Taonga | Saturday 10 August 11:15am – 12:15pm | Wintergarden, The Civic
Mati Diop’s Dahomey follows the repatriation of 26 artefacts stolen by French soldiers from the Kingdom of Dahomey in 1892 as they are returned to what is now the Republic of Benin. Acclaimed Aotearoa visual artists Luke Willis Thompson and Yana Dombrowsky-M’Baye bring the conversation of repatriating stolen taonga into a local context in this lucid and nuanced discussion. This discussion follows the screening of Dahomey on Aug 12 at The Civic.
See more panel discussions, here.
$2 per hour to a max of $12 on weekends and a $12 flat rate for weekday evenings at The Civic car park. Find out more.