12 Cannes films announced for Whānau Mārama: NZ International Film Festival

Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) today reveals an impressive line-up of acclaimed films direct from Cannes Film Festival 2022 that are set to feature in its 2022 programme coming to cinemas around Aotearoa New Zealand this winter from 28 July.

“NZIFF is bringing the very best from Cannes to New Zealand audiences and we’re thrilled to present an outstanding line-up of major award winners and nominees from celebrated filmmakers from around the globe. Audiences can look forward to a diverse range of cinematic experiences this festival,” says NZIFF Head of Programming Michael McDonnell.

 

Lauded Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s eagerly anticipated satire on the mega-rich, Triangle of Sadness will be the festival’s closing night film, screening in all NZIFF 2022 centres. A biting attack on the one percent, the film earned Östlund his second Palme d'Or for Best Film at the Cannes Film Festival last month.

 

Jointly awarded Grand Prix winners Close, directed by Lukas Dhont, and Claire Denis’ Stars at Noon, also join the line-up. Acclaimed Belgian coming-of-age drama, Close, is an intimate, quietly devastating study of boyhood friends, while Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwyn star in Stars at Noon, a steamy tropical reverie about a journalist stranded in Nicaragua who sees an English businessman as her chance to escape.

From Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook comes Decision to Leave. The black-widow noir romance, for which Chan-wook was awarded Best Director, tells the tale of a married detective torn between infidelity and moral duty.

Also screening at NZIFF 2022 is the latest thriller from Tarik Saleh, Boy from Heaven. The Best Screenplay winner explores the tangled state of modern-day Egypt, focusing on the crooked ties between religion on politics against the setting of Cairo's historical Al-Azhar Mosque and university, one of the world’s foremost institutions of Sunni Islam teaching.

 

From Cannes’ Un Certain Regard selection comes Best Director-nominated films: tender drama The Blue Caftan from Morrocan director Maryam Touzani, stunning historical epic Godland from Icelandic filmmaker Hlynur Pálmason, bittersweet comedy Return to Seoul from Cambodian French director Davy Chou, and Thomas M. Wright’s intense Australian true crime drama The Stranger, starring Joel Edgerton and Sean Harris.

Also, from Cannes’ Un Certain Regard selection, is writer-director Marie Kreutzer's lushly decorated and costumed Corsage, featuring Best Performance winner Vicky Krieps as Sissi, the Empress Elisabeth of Austria.

Celebrated French director Mia Hansen-Løve returns to the festival with the enchanting slice-of-life feature One Fine Morning, this year’s recipient of the Europa Cinemas Label for Best European film in the Directors’ Fortnight section. Actress Léa Seydoux sparkles in this powerful story of a single mother torn between emotionally unavailable men.

 

And from Cannes’ Marché du Film comes one for the whole whānau – the dazzling animation Perlimps from Academy Award nominated Brazilian filmmaker Alê Abreu (The Boy and the World, NZIFF 2014). The film, which will feature in NZIFF’s Square Eyes collection, centres on secret agents from enemy kingdoms, Claé and Bruô, who must overcome their differences and combine forces to face dangerous giants that threaten to swamp the forest.

 

Cannes highlights at NZIFF 2022 include:

Best Screenplay: Boy from Heaven / Walad min al janna

Sweden, 2022

Director: Tarik Saleh

Tarik Saleh deftly explores the tangled state of modern-day Egypt through his firebrand thriller set in Cairo’s Al-Azhar University the country’s most respected religious teaching institution.

Grand Prix Winner (jointly awarded): Close

Belgium, 2022

Director: Lukas Dhont

Belgian director Lukas Dhont follows up his award-winning debut Girl (NZIFF 2018) with this deft exploration of the fragile world of childhood bonds which has already picked up major prizes at Cannes and Sydney.

Un Certain Regard – Best Performance Winner: Corsage

Austria, 2022

Director: Marie Kreutzer

Marie Kreutzer’s bold and subversive costume drama features an imperious Vicky Krieps as the restless Empress Elisabeth of Austria, struggling to break free from the restrictive confines of courtly life.

Presented at NZIFF 2022 in association with Goethe-Institut

Best Director: Decision to Leave / Heojil Kyolshim

South Korea, 2022

Director:  Park Chan-wook

Park Chan-wook makes a welcome return to NZIFF with this masterful and seductive romantic thriller about an insomniac detective investigating a mysterious widow oddly unconcerned with her husband’s death.

Presented at NZIFF 2022 in association with Metro

Un Certain Regard – Selection: Godland / Vanskabte Land/Volaða Land

Denmark/Iceland, 2022

Director: Hlynur Pálmason

Icelandic filmmaker Hlynur Pálmason follows up A White, White Day (NZIFF 2019) with this stunning historical epic which recalls the grandeur and madness of Herzog at his best.

Presented at NZIFF 2022 in association with the Wellington Film Society

Winner Europa Cinemas Label: One Fine Morning / Un Beau Matin

France, 2022

Director: Mia Hansen-Løve

Léa Seydoux stars as a busy single mother, juggling caring for her daughter and her ailing father, who finds love in unexpected circumstances in Mia Hansen-Løve’s nimble romantic drama.

Perlimps

Brazil, 2022

Director: Alê Abreu

Two secret agents from enemy kingdoms are sent to a world on the brink of a terrible war where they have one important mission: to find the Perlimps, mysterious creatures who can ultimately bring peace.

Part of NZIFF 2022’s Square Eyes collection

Un Certain Regard – Selection: Return to Seoul / Retour à Séoul

France, 2022

Director: Davy Chou

A French Korean adoptee returns to Seoul, a home she has never known, and over the course of several visits begins to process her complicated relationship with her biological family and country of birth.

Grand Prix Winner (jointly awarded): Stars at Noon

France, 2022

Director: Claire Denis

Based on Denis Johnson’s cult novel, Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwyn star in this heady and alluring romantic thriller from NZIFF fave Claire Denis, directing her second English-language feature.

Presented at NZIFF 2022 in association with Canterbury Film Society

Un Certain Regard – Selection: The Blue Caftan / Le Bleu du Caftan

Morocco, 2022

Director: Maryam Touzani

A master tailor’s wife watches on as her closeted husband falls in love with his apprentice in this sensuous second feature from Maryam Touzani, as elegant and finely crafted as the beautiful garments in her film.

Un Certain Regard – Selection: The Stranger

Australia, 2022

Director: Thomas M. Wright

Joel Edgerton and Sean Harris deliver brooding performances as predator becomes prey in up-and-coming director Thomas M. Wright’s dark and intense Australian true crime drama.

Palme d’Or Winner: Triangle of Sadness (Closing Night film)

Sweden, 2022

Director/Screenplay: Ruben Östlund

Gilded privilege comes a cropper when abruptly confronted by less luxurious reality in this brilliantly orchestrated satire awarded the Palme d’Or 2022.

Presented at NZIFF 2022 in association with VIVA