Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) has announced 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, July 28.
This will be followed by Opening Night Galas at The Embassy Theatre, Te Whanganui-a Tara-on Thursday, August 4, Isaac Theatre Royal, Ōtautahi on Friday, August 5, and Rialto Cinemas, Ōtepoti on Thursday, August 11, before opening in nine other regions across the motu 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," NZIFF general manager Sally Woodfield said in a statement on Monday.
"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 the festivals in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, while American filmmaker Sara Dosa's lauded documentary Fire of Love will open all other 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, featuring Normal People's breakout star Paul Mescal; David Cronenberg's sci-fi spellbinder Crimes of the Future, starring 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 recipient 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 the documentary Gloriavale, a probing and poignant investigation behind the 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-US co-production Ka Pō, a magical work that meditates deeply on the tragedy of methamphetamine addiction in Polynesian communities, directed by Hawaii's 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 the festival's Square Eyes Collection: a collection curated especially for both the youngest cinephiles and those young at heart. On 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 by Danish director Christian Tafdrup. A double-dose of absurdism comes French director Quentin Dupieux, with his twisted mind-bender Incredible but True and wacky superhero 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, visit nziff.co.nz. Printed programmes will be available at festival venues this July. To find out more about when tickets are on sale at a festival location near you, click here.
