The full Auckland lineup for NZIFF 2023 has been announced (with the rest of the country to come soon). Steve Newall and Liam Maguren are on hand with their first picks of the fest.
Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival returns with another stacked lineup this year—including numerous films from Cannes (Monster, Asteroid City, May December, Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall etc). The Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland programme features 129 full-length films and seven short film collections, screening in six venues and cinemas in Auckland from 19 July to 6 August with the festival rolling out to 15 regions across the motu. You can pick up a printed programme for an analog approach, or check out the full list of titles at the NZIFF website.
NZIFF has also announced a great complement of visiting filmmakers coming to Aotearoa for the fest: Celine Song (Past Lives), Laha Mebow (GAGA), Soda Jerk (Hello Dankness), Elegance Bratton (The Inspection), Christoffer Guldbrandsen (A Storm Foretold), and Rolf de Heer (The Survival of Kindness).
But before we head into cinemas, there’s the programme to peruse, watchlists and schedules to be made, with hopefully not too many difficult decisions about clashes along the way. Steve Newall and Liam Maguren dig through the programme, looking beyond the marquee titles to each select five films they’re looking forward to seeing at NZIFF 2023.
Anselm 3D
Two things you should know about me: I’m a 3D Blu-ray-collecting loser and Wim Wenders’ 2014 film The Salt of the Earth is one of the most affecting documentaries I’ve ever seen. So if 1 + 1 = 2 then I’m predestined to see Wenders’ 3D cinema experience on artist Anselm Kiefer, the extra dimension feeling well-suited to the literal depths of the painter-sculptor’s work. As a bonus, the film got nominated for the Golden Eye at Cannes and had critics like Variety’s Catherine Bray saying things like, “a tour-de-force 3D 6K portrait… both rich in ideas and breathtaking in technical execution.” LIAM MAGUREN
Bad Behaviour
I’m a sucker for a polarising pic, and reactions to Alice Englert’s directorial debut skew one way or the other—you’re unlikely to be on the fence with this one (and isn’t that exactly what you’re after from both a filmmaker’s first feature and also a film fest?). Starring Jennifer Connelly and Ben Whishaw, Englert’s pic (which premiered at Sundance) gets to exist on its own terms—a singular tale of mothers and daughters, expectations and dysfunction, that we’re proud to see the Flicks logo beside at this year’s NZIFF. STEVE NEWALL
Hello Dankness
Making a welcome return to NZIFF after Terror Nullius played in 2018 (“an audaciously entertaining cavalcade and engrossing shit-stir,” I called it at the time), Soda Jerk are back—and coming back to Aotearoa in person—with a new film made up of painstakingly sampled/collaged footage that would make Hollywood lawyers drool at the opportunities for litigation. Capturing the mood around the 2016 US Presidential elections, you might not look at some of your favourite films quite the same way again after this anarchic and impassioned storytelling, in which borrowed images, characters and sequences both lend and take on new meaning as part of the dank whole. STEVE NEWALL
King Loser
Revered by some, reviled by others, King Loser blazed a fiery trail through Aotearoa’s music scene in the mid-90s (including a trio of standout Flying Nun albums) before the inevitable happened, and they combusted—perhaps more spectacularly than spontaneously. Co-director Andrew Moore joined the band on a 2016 reunion tour, capturing the band’s chaotic charisma and documenting what would sadly be the last shows for King Loser’s talismanic Celia Mancini before she passed away the following year. Charting the ups and downs of their ’16 comeback and also telling the King Loser story with lashings of archival footage and present-day interviews, this is a must-see for music fans. STEVE NEWALL
Kim’s Video
A Manhattan fixture, by the early 2000s Kim’s Video became the place you could rent damn near anything (and its owner Yongman Kim certainly did not wait for legally permissible copies). The legendarily surly Kim’s staff—who included the likes of filmmakers Alex Ross Perry and Todd Phillips and musicians Albert Hammond Jr. and Andrew WK—dealt a library of over 55,000 tapes, catering to the weird and esoteric… until Kim decided to sell up. This doco is much more than a eulogy for a video store though, charting the bizarre story of what happened to the film collection—given away by Kim to someone who would fulfill exacting criteria, including maintaining it as a whole and allowing Kim’s members access. A bit difficult, when it moved a continent away (but the story certainly does not end there). STEVE NEWALL
Loop Track
As a big 48hours nerd, seeing this movie in a packed cinema will fill me with more pride than hearing Che Fu’s te reo version of Fade Away playing after The Warriors win the NRL Grand Final in 2057. Writer-director-actor-comedian Thomas Sainsbury and production house Chillbox won Aotearoa’s biggest filmmaking competition in 2016 and 2018 with two bold and inventive shorts soaked in humour and sinister undertones, so you can only imagine what they’re capable of outside a weekend-long production. I expect this unassuming psychological thriller to go far beyond its anxious-man-takes-a-hike setup to deliver a crowd-slamming—and unmistakably New Zealand—experience. LIAM MAGUREN
Past Lives
Childhood sweethearts, separated by distance, reunite 20 years later in this A24 drama, where across one fateful week they’re forced to confront notions of love and destiny. The Korean concept of inyeon (a lifelong, fate-like connection to another person) plays a key role in this acclaimed debut by filmmaker (and NZIFF 2023 festival guest!) Celine Song, following the now-adult pair as they consider the meaningfulness of their relationship to one another, the consequences of paths not taken, and the chaos that can come from rekindling. STEVE NEWALL
Plan 75
Here’s the premise: a super-aged society in the near future gives citizens who hit the age of 75 the option of voluntary euthanasia in exchange for money passed onto their family or to spend on their final day alive. Not exactly a barrel of giggles, especially since the reality of such a program isn’t unthinkable and I’ll likely be 75 in this “near future.” But this is also the kind of high-pondering, moral interrogation that makes sci-fi such a unique, compelling, and confronting genre—I dare say, it’s the type of fiction that shapes us. LIAM MAGUREN
Robot Dreams
A hit at Cannes and Annecy, this adaptation of Sara Varon’s graphic novel follows the friendship of a robot and a dog in 1980s New York. Instead of dialogue, the film leans into its animation with music numbers and physical comedy conveying the relationship between these two best buds. Go into this thinking it’s a throwaway family flick, however, and you’ll be most susceptible to the film’s bittersweet story. LIAM MAGUREN
Sweet As
Writer-director Jub Clerc’s feature debut has stopped by film festivals around the world—from Toronto to Berlin, Melbourne to Māoriland. Feels appropriate for a road movie about an Indigenous teenager who develops a love for the camera. While not avoiding some raw drama and harsh realities, Sweet As is ultimately a story of self-discovery and the infectious sense of wonder and joy that emits—you can feel it radiating from the trailer alone. LIAM MAGUREN
