Whānau Mārama New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) has rolled out its full line-up for 2024: 86 feature films and 19 shorts. The full line-up, schedule, and ticket info is now on the festival website, along with a downloadable pdf of the programme.
The only NZ title added to the programme since the earlier announcements is a special 30th anniversary screening of Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures (above), which will screen in 4K.
NZIFF 2024 Artistic Director Paolo Bertolin observed, “Jackson’s classic had its world premiere as the Opening Film of the 1994 festival, with then-Festival Director Bill Gosden hailing it as a ‘landmark in New Zealand cinema’. Soon after, it was awarded a Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival by Jury President David Lynch, making it ‘the sensational new movie from New Zealand in cinemas around the world’.”
While the festival’s financial issues are well-known and the overall programme size is 50+ titles down on where it has been historically, the line-up does include films from 20 countries. There’s no lack of ambition in what Bertolin and the team has put together for this year’s edition, either in the title selections or other elements of the festival.
The NZIFF has introduced a couple of new competition line-ups for features, the absence of which has long been a major part of what has kept the festival from being considered an A-list event internationally. International competitions are also a requirement for Oscar-qualifying festivals, so the arrival of the Fresh (narrative) and Frames (documentary) feature competitions look like first steps towards achieving such status.
Bertolin said, “This year’s programme is a celebration of the diversity and plurality of contemporary cinema. Our audiences will enjoy films that move, thrill and keep them on the edge of their seats, while also having the opportunity to experience films that open conversations about the reality of the world today, asking necessary questions and probing into uncomfortable truths.”
As well as the info on the full line-up of titles, the programme offers more detail on the other parts of the festival – the local and international filmmakers in attendance to support screenings and take part in Q+A sessions, and the Aotearoa Film Focus Weekend in Auckland.
The festival will open in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington on 31 July before touring nine other centres across the country until 4 September. Ticket sales for Wellington open Friday (5 July), for Auckland on 12 July, and late this month for other centres. All the info is on the NZIFF site.
