Full Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival 2022 programme released

Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) today announces its full  programme for 2022, with the festival making its highly anticipated return to The Civic for the Opening Night Gala in Tāmaki Makaurau on Thursday 28 July. This will be followed by Opening Night  Galas at The Embassy Theatre, Te Whanganui-a Tara-on Thursday 4 August, Isaac Theatre Royal, Ōtautahi on Friday 5 August, and Rialto Cinemas, Ōtepoti on Thursday 11 August, before opening in  nine other regions around the country throughout August. 

“We couldn’t be prouder of our 2022 programme – as well as having an outstanding collection of  films from Aotearoa, our international selection is packed with award-winning, critically acclaimed  films from all around the world. We look forward to presenting our programme to audiences around  the country and we thank New Zealanders for their continued support of the festival,” says NZIFF  General Manager Sally Woodfield. 

“It feels particularly momentous to celebrate NZIFF’s return to Tāmaki Makaurau at the city’s iconic  venue The Civic after a pandemic-inflicted hiatus, and we’re thrilled to be kicking off proceedings  with the World Premiere of local filmmaker Tearepa Kahi’s much anticipated action-drama Muru.” 

As previously announced, Muru will open Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin festivals,  while American filmmaker Sara Dosa’s lauded documentary Fire of Love will open in all other festival  locations. Dosa’s portrait of two intrepid French volcanologists, skilfully constructed from amazing  archival footage collected from ground-breaking volcanic expeditions, comes to the festival following  the film making a major splash at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Swedish director Ruben  Östlund’s Palme d'Or-winning Triangle of Sadness will bookend the festival programme in all  centres. 

Additional titles direct from Cannes Film Festival 2022 joining the line-up include Charlotte Wells’ directorial debut Aftersun, starring Normal People’s breakout star Paul Mescal, David Cronenberg’s  sci-fi spellbinder Crimes of the Future, staring Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux and Kristen Stewart, Queer Palm winner Joyland, a trans love story from first-time Pakistani director Saim Sadiq, and  blacker-than-black Norwegian comedy Sick of Myself, directed by Kristoffer Borgli and from the  producers of The Worst Person in the World. 

Award winners from this year’s Berlin Film Festival include Golden Bear winner Alcarràs, Carla  Simón’s vibrant ensemble drama about a Catalonian peach-growing family facing eviction and 

Mexican-Bolivian filmmaker Natalia López Gallardo’s Silver Bear Jury winning Robe of Gems, a story  of crime, class, and corruption in modern Mexico. 

Joining the collection of New Zealand films will be documentary Gloriavale, a probing and poignant  investigation behind closed doors of the Gloriavale Christian Community, Shut Eye, the feature  debut from Auckland writer-director Tom Levesque that centres on a disconnected young woman  who becomes fixated on a local ASMR streamer, and New Zealand-USA co-production Ka Pō, a  magical work that meditates deeply on the tragedy of methamphetamine addiction in Polynesian  communities from Hawaiian director Etienne Aurelius and produced by Oscar-nominee Chelsea  Winstanley (Ngati Ranginui, Ngāi te Rangi, Pākehā). 

Other 2022 programme highlights include stop motion delight Marcel the Shell with Shoes On from  our Square Eyes Collection, a collection curated especially for both the youngest cinephiles and  those young at heart, and, from the other end of the spectrum, in the Incredibly Strange strand – a  collection that promises to burrow into your mind, haunt your waking moments and ward off any  chance of a peaceful night’s sleep – comes vacation-from-hell thriller Speak No Evil from Danish  director Christian Tafdrup and a double-dose of absurdism from French director Quentin Dupieux  with his twisted mind-bender Incredible but True and wacky super hero parody Smoking Causes  Coughing direct from Cannes. 

For full details of all the films screening at NZIFF 2022 and to view a digital edition of the  programme, please visit nziff.co.nz. Printed programmes will be available at festival venues this July.