Five more NZIFF films unveiled - and a new Auckland venue

Five more NZIFF films unveiled - and a new Auckland venue

This morning brings more news from the New Zealand International Film Festival - see below for details of more NZIFF films and also a new Auckland venue!

You Asked for Them You asked if we’d be showing them, and we're telling you YOU BET! Five of this year’s most requested films join our early announcements today. Remember the Oscars? Two of these films made the final round and one of them most definitely should have. CGI fans have been on our case for A Monster Calls, while Call Me by Your Name arrives on a wave of justified hype after debuting in Sundance and Berlin. Now we wait with bated breath to hear which Cannes gems our Paris-based programmer Sandra Reid will be going to bat for. Don’t call us. We’ll call her. Today we also announce acclaimed filmmaker Gaylene Preston as our guest selector for the 2017 New Zealand's Best Short Film competition. Preston will be selecting six shorts from a shortlist of 12 chosen by NZIFF programmers from 83 entries. Gaylene’s choice will screen as part of NZIFF and compete for three prizes: the Madman Entertainment Best Short Film Award, the Wallace Friends of the Civic Award, and the Audience Choice Award. Read on for details. We expand into the Wynyard Quarter this year with the ASB Waterfront Theatre becoming our new CBD venue. Not quite so handy as SKYCITY, it’s true, but a stunning facility totally worth the added distance. Plan for a quick jaunt from The Civic, Academy Cinema or Event Cinemas Queen St, and we’ll look forward to seeing you at our new waterfront venue from 20 July to 6 August.

A New Waterfront Venue for NZIFF We expand to the Wynyard Quarter in 2017 with the ASB Waterfront Theatre now equipped for our annual screenings. The 668-seat theatre will be the first venue in New Zealand to be using Digital Laser Cinema Projector Technology, supplied by NEC NZ. Audio will be delivered using a bespoke 5.1 cinema surround sound system which has been designed, supplied and installed by Bartons Sound Systems, in collaboration with NEC NZ. The venue is one of four venues in the CBD, and one of seven across Auckland that will screen NZIFF films from 20 July to 6 August. We’re excited to join Auckland’s innovation hub at the Wynyard Quarter. The theatre will be a superb place to watch a movie and we’re sure the bar, café and restaurant will prove super-attractive to festival-goers. NZIFF is totally at home in the CBD and committed to keeping our entire programme available to patrons there. This new location stays close to our other three CBD venues: it is on the City Link bus route, and only a brisk walk down the hill from The Civic, Event Cinemas and the Academy Cinemas. Read more about the ASB Waterfront Theatre on our website.

Gaylene Preston to Select NZ's Best Gaylene Preston will be our Guest Selector for the 2017 New Zealand’s Best short film competition. Five to six selected New Zealand shorts will premiere in Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin and Christchurch where audiences are encouraged to vote for their favourite short from Preston’s shortlist. Previous Guest Selectors have included Lee Tamahori (2016), Christine Jeffs (2015), Andrew Adamson (2014), Alison Maclean (2013), and Roger Donaldson (2012). Gaylene Preston is one of New Zealand’s most recognised and valued filmmakers, with a screen career spanning four decades and writer, director and producer credits covering feature films, documentaries and TV drama series. Preston’s latest film My Year with Helen will screen at NZIFF 2017. Read more about this year's New Zealand's Best competition on our website.

20th Century Women Annette Bening captivates as a single mother enlisting Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning to help raise her 15-year-old son in this funny, nuanced memoir of late 70s lifestyles from director Mike Mills (Beginners). Watch the trailer

Call Me by Your Name This gorgeous and moving adaptation of André Aciman’s acclaimed novel, directed by Luca Guadagnino (I Am Love), stars Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet as lovers in sun-kissed northern Italy.

My Life As a Courgette This soulful and subversive Oscar-nominated feature uses stop-motion animation to tell the story of an orphan named Courgette. From the key animator on Fantastic Mr Fox, and adapted for the screen by Girlhood’s Céline Sciamma. Watch the trailer

I Am Not Your Negro This Oscar-nominated documentary draws an astonishing, challenging and utterly contemporary examination of race in the United States entirely from the writings and interview footage of civil rights icon James Baldwin. Watch the trailer

A Monster Calls A story-telling monster (voiced by Liam Neeson) helps a sleeping boy with his waking-life nightmares in this adaptation of Patrick Ness’ novel, spectacularly realised with lavish CGI and painterly animations. Watch the trailer