NZIFF Q&A with Michael McDonnell, the NZIFF head of programming

Ahead of the start of the Auckland leg of the 2022 Whanau Marama New Zealand International Film Festival, we caught up with Michael McDonnell, the NZIFF's head of programming to discuss being back in the City of Sails, the programme highlights and the film he wants to see most of all.

Welcome back to 2022 - it feels like it's been a long journey to get here.

It’s definitely been a crazy few years but with last year’s postponed festival we basically moved straight into prepping this year’s festival as soon as last year’s festival stopped screening.

You're opening with something of a political bang - want to tell us more about Muru?

We were delighted to score the world premiere of Muru as our opening night film this year. Tearepa Kahi’s delivers both insightful political commentary and edge-of-your-seat action by reimagining the Tuhoe raids in 2007. We can’t wait to share the film with audiences and it's sure to set the festival off.

Obviously, it's great to be back in Auckland, but you're offering a few less films this year - but there's no drop in quality it seems?

Even though we couldn’t bring the usual scope to the festival this year our aim was to condense all the variety and excitement of the usual festival into the shorter dates we have for this year. 

We’re ecstatic with how the programme has shaped up especially opening with Muru and closing with the hottest title from Cannes and the Palme d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness which will be a wild way to close the festival for this year.

What’s the New Zealand contingent of film been like for 2022?

We expected that with Covid it could’ve been a struggle to deliver our usual Aotearoa programme, but as it turns out we’ve secured an amazing selection that’s as strong as ever. 

As well as the world premiere of Muru, we’re also screening the premieres of Welby Ings’ coming-of-age drama Punch and Kāinga, the follow up to Waru and Vai, chronicling eight stories from female Asian-New Zealand filmmakers. We Are Still Here is another film from a multi-filmmaker team bringing together indigenous filmmakers from New Zealand and Australia.

On the documentary side we have the premieres of Gloriavale which takes us inside the lives of those who have escaped the West Coast cult and When the Cows Come Home which gives us a different look at life on the dairy farm. A Boy Called Piano is an adaptation of the stage work of the same name bringing the story of Fa’amoana John Luafutu to the screen and Portraits of Us introduces us to Kiwi artist Geoff Dixon and his unique works of ecological armageddon.

Are there any themes emerging from this year's festival that you've picked up on?

This year it’s been great to welcome back a couple of festival favourites who haven’t been in the festival for several years. 

David Cronenberg turns back the clock with Crimes of the Future, not only has he taken a title from one of his earliest films but he has delivered a real throwback to the Cronenberg films that used to play regularly at the festival in the 80s and 90s. Meanwhile, Korean maestro Park Chan-wook has returned with Decision to Leave an effortlessly cool romantic thriller that will thrill the maestro’s fans and have newbies digging into his back catalogue.

The quirks of Covid-era distribution have meant we are showing two new films each by two distinctive French auteurs and longtime festival faves; Claire Denis and Quentin Dupieux. 

Claire Denis picked up awards in Berlin for Both Sides of the Blade and Cannes for Stars at Noon. Both bear her distinctive style, Both Sides of the Blade illustrating the deconstruction of a marriage while Stars at Noon bemused Cannes audiences with its discursive but atmospheric style. If you can get with the rhythm it’s a wild ride thanks to Margaret Qualley’s full on performance.

Quentin Dupieux’s two films, Incredible but True and Smoking Causes Coughing, are equally distinctive, both screening as part of Incredibly Strange, giving the festival a double-dose of Gallic weirdness. Audiences who loved Mandibles from last year or Deerskin from 2019 will know to expect more deadpan madness and absolute WTF-ery.

What are your favourite films from the programme this year and why?

There are a lot of great docos but a favourite is Navalny. Alexei Navalny is arguably the biggest threat to Vladimir Putin’s stranglehold on power in Russia and audiences may be familiar with his poisoning in 2020 but if you haven’t been following how his story unfolded since then this documentary delivers its fair share of absolutely jaw-dropping moments. It’s an urgent and important doco that speaks to events going on in Russia today.

My favourite title from Cannes was the twisted Norwegian comedy Sick of Myself. If you thought The Worst Person in World needed to delve deeper into its protagonist’s nascent narcissism then this is the film for you. 

What are the films that are already doing well at the box office for 2022's audiences? What should they rush to not miss out on?

The biggest sellers so far are Muru, our closing night screening Triangle of Sadness, Decision to Leave, Fire of Love and Navalny. We’re having special one-off big screen screenings of a number of hot titles like Crimes of the Future, Aubrey Plaza starrer and Sundance-fave Emily the Criminal, the critical darling from Cannes Aftersun, an immersive trip back to the music of new millennium with Meet Me in the Bathroom and the bad boy of tennis in his own words with McEnroe.

What are the films that you think audiences shouldn't overlook?

A sleeper hit for this year is My Old School, a unique doco in which truth proves stranger than fiction in the style of past festival hits The Imposter and Three Identical Strangers. For the best experience we’d recommend not reading up too much on the film and letting its surprises sneak up on you. 

We have a lot of great genre work at the festival this year.

Two that shouldn’t be overlooked are Watcher and Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon. Watcher is a real throwback thriller starring Maika Monroe who festival audiences will remember fondly from It Follows as she is again stalked by an unknown menace. 

Mona Lisa is the latest from the director of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and is an atmospheric fantasy set in the neon-lit streets of New Orleans. If Watcher recalls the paranoid thrillers of the 70s, then Mona Lisa recalls the B-movie adventure films of the 80s.

There are some films which are about experiences this year, such as Fire of Love and Path 99 - tell us about those and what they bring?

Fire of Love is both quirky and fun as well as having some of the most eye-opening footage you’ll see at the festival this year. It takes us into the lives of Katia and Maurice Kraftt who were volcanologists who took their passion to the extreme. Filmmaker Sara Dosa tells their story in a very unique way, think of it as something like Grizzly Man meets The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou with added lava.

Path 99 is the festival’s first fulldome projection screening in Auckland at the Stardome this year after screening at the Space Place in Wellington last year. It’s a unique audio-visual experience unlike anything else screening at the festival this year.

What's the one film you want to see - either for the first time or again - on the big screen with an audience with and why?

A title I haven’t seen is Close, winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes and Best Film at Sydney. Our programmer Sandra Reid recommended the film highly from Cannes and I’m looking forward to seeing it along with audiences at the festival this year.

You can find details of the full New Zealand International Film Festival programme at nziff.co.nz