The Oscar®-qualifying Doc Edge Festival marks its 21st year with a bold opening slate (sixteen films that take audiences inside a Gaza conflict zone, into the world of AI companionship, onto the set of a fatal Hollywood shooting, and deep into the criminal underworld of Aotearoa. From competitive dance floors to a bucket list written by a dying man and narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch, this year’s programme is as wildly varied as it is urgent.
Spanning deeply personal stories to global issues playing out in real time, the opening line-up draws on voices from Aotearoa and around the world and features multiple World Premieres ahead of the full programme release on 15 May.
Doc Edge Festival runs in Auckland from 24 June to 12 July and Wellington from 15 to 26 July, with screenings alongside an immersive exhibition programme. Auckland will also host Doc Edge’s industry event and awards from 29 June to 1 July, drawing filmmakers, distributors, and industry guests from across New Zealand and internationally.
New Zealand Films (all world premieres)
Finding Honk by Eldon Booth
To fulfil his dying father’s final wish, Hayden Pere tracks down an estranged relative and is pulled deep into the shadows of his own family history, where vengeful enemies and buried secrets threaten everything he holds dear.
Music and the Mystical Experience by Isabel Corfiatis
Sound engineer Michael Sutherland assembles twenty of New Zealand’s most talented musicians to score the psychedelic experience. Through performance and expert insight, the film explores music as a transformative tool for therapeutic healing.
There’s a Hole in my Bucket by Robert Cavanah, narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch
When Royd Tolkien, great-grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien, loses his brother Mike to Motor Neurone Disease, Mike leaves behind one final act of love and mischief: a bucket list of 50 challenges designed to drag his reluctant, comfort-zone-hugging brother back into the land of the living. Raucous, tender, and deeply human.
Unlikely Kin by Kim Webby & Michael Jonathan (top image)
A father and son fight to uphold Māori guardianship (harvesting stranded whales and protecting endangered fauna. They reveal how ancestral knowledge may be the essential key to healing the land and saving New Zealand’s forests.
International Films
World Premieres
Mar Musa by Schahab Kermani (Germany)
Amid Syria’s desert mountains, the Mar Musa monastery embodies interfaith hope as monks and nuns pursue peace in the long shadow of war.
Return to the Strange Land by Olga Malirova (Czechia)
Legendary choreographer Jiří Kylián creates his final masterpiece: a personal tribute to his lifelong muse, Sabine Kupferberg. Set on a windswept Dutch island, this film is physical poetry about love, mortality, and shared legacy.
International Premieres
The Trial of Alec Baldwin by Rory Kennedy (USA)
A fatal on-set shooting. A Hollywood star. A courtroom battle that put fame and accountability on trial. Rory Kennedy’s unflinching film examines how Baldwin’s public persona became a lightning rod for justice and judgment.
Revolution’s Daughter by Thaddeus D. Matula (USA)
Alina Fernández never knew her father was Fidel Castro. When she found out, she spoke out, defected, and never looked back. A portrait of identity, secrets, and life in exile.
Seized by Sharon Liese (USA)
A police raid on the Marion County Record in Kansas and the death of its 98-year-old co-owner ignites a fierce debate about the abuse of power, journalism, and the U.S. Constitution.
Dance For Your Life by Luke Cornish (Australia)
Ten young Australian dancers from Brent Street performing arts school compete for a spot with an international dance company (travelling to London to audition for Shapehaus Dance Theatre under choreographer Dean Lee.
Asia Pacific Premieres
A War on Women by Raha Shirazi (Italy)
Shot to reframe the 2022 Iranian uprising, this film reveals a feminist resistance forty years in the making.
Inside Gaza by Hélène Lam Trong (France, Belgium)
Trapped in a conflict closed to the international press, a group of AFP journalists documents the war from within. A searing exploration of the moral dilemma of survival, and the vital role of field journalism in an era of growing attacks on media freedom.
Ceremony by Banchi Hanuse (Canada)
From ramshackle Nuxalk Radio in Bella Coola, voices trace the disappearance of the ooligan run revealing a buried history deeper than the river itself.
Let Our Mountains Live by Håvard Bustnes (Norway, Finland)
Sámi reindeer herders win a Supreme Court victory against Europe’s largest wind farm (but when the state refuses to act, their fight reveals a deeper crisis of justice and trust.
NZ Premieres
Elon Musk Unveiled – The Tesla Experiment by Andreas Pichler (Germany)
For the first time, close confidants, whistleblowers, victims, and former high-ranking Tesla employees pull back the curtain on Musk’s empire and speak out.
Replica by Chouwa Liang (Australia, France)
Young Chinese women turn to AI companions in search of the love they feel is missing from their lives. But are chatbots standing in the way of real human connection?
