NZIFF reveals Cannes films to play 2023 Whānau Mārama: New Zealand 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 2023 that are set to feature in its 2023 programme lighting up cinemas around Aotearoa this winter from 19 July.

"We're thrilled that for the third year in a row NZIFF has secured the Palme d'Or winner to present to New Zealand audiences. We couldn't be more pleased with this year's selection direct from Cannes 2023, with NZIFF being one of the first international film festivals to feature these titles," says NZIFF Head of Programming Michael McDonnell.

This year’s Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall opens our Festival in all centres with a profound and galvanising reflection on truth, facts and fiction. Directed by Justine Triet (Sibyl NZIFF 2019) — the third woman in Cannes history to receive the Palme d’Or for Best Film — this French thriller pivots around an extraordinary central performance from Sandra Hüller (Toni Erdmann NZIFF 2016) as an author suspected of her husband’s murder.

From beloved American auteur Wes Anderson comes colourful sci-fi Asteroid City, in which a jaw-dropping A-list cast converge on a small desert town for a space convention. Also, from the United States comes Todd Haynes’ metafictional psychodrama May December starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore as actor and subject in a movie-within-a-movie about a tabloid sex scandal.

Best Screenplay winner Monster and Best Actor winner Perfect Days also join the line-up. Kore-eda Hirokazu’s (Shoplifters NZIFF 2018) Monster follows a mother who confronts a teacher after noticing disturbing changes in her son's behaviour. Wim Wenders’ (Wings of Desire NZIFF 2018) Perfect Days hits the sweet spot in a poetic character study chronicling the daily life of a Tokyo cleaner.

Also set to play NZIFF 2023 is visually striking Senegalese romance Banel & Adama directed by Ramata-Toulaye Sy, a fable about a clash between love and duty which was the only feature debut to premiere In Competition at Cannes 2023.

Another Cannes feature debut screening at NZIFF 2023 is cinematographer-turned-director Molly Manning Walker’s stunning, neon-drenched How to Have Sex, which follows a trio of British teen girls on a wild booze-fuelled holiday and took home this year’s Un Certain Regard Prize.

Further selections from Cannes’ Un Certain Regard programme include Rodrigo Moreno’s three-hour Argentinian heist comedy-drama The Delinquents and Warwick Thornton’s (Samson and Delilah NZIFF 2008) beguiling spiritual thriller The New Boy set in 1940s Australia featuring Cate Blanchett as a renegade nun.

Winner of the Grand Prize of Critics’ Week at Cannes this year, Amanda Nell Eu’s Malaysian art-horror Tiger Stripes also joins our festival programme and follows a 12-year-old girl as she gets her period and watches her body undergo a terrifying transformation.

We will close this year’s Festival with the delightful Fallen Leaves, awarded the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki (Le Havre NZIFF 2011) returns with a deadpan romantic crowd-pleaser about two lost souls on a bumpy road to finding love.

NZIFF will announce its full Auckland programme, including additional Cannes titles, on Monday 26 June.

NZIFF 2023 opens in Auckland on 19 July, followed by Wellington on 27 July, Dunedin on 3 August and Christchurch on 10 August. The remaining centres will span August and September. Read more about the films here.