Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival Announces First Films For 2023

Wednesday 3 May 2023

Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) today announces the first of an exciting line up for 2023. NZIFF works hard to bring the best in global cinema to Aotearoa, including the last two Cannes Palme d’Or winners and this year is no exception.

The highly anticipated Past Lives, EO, Afire, Saint Omer and Beyond Utopia will be draw cards for cinephiles across the motu. These films are a sample of what audiences can expect from a great line up of international and local features and documentaries during the festival.

“We’re thrilled with the films that are coming through for selection in 2023. These first five provide a taster of what audiences can expect to see in a very strong line-up,” said NZIFF’s Head of Programming, Michael McDonnell.

"From childhood sweethearts separated by distance and time to nail-biting escapes from the hermit kingdom of North Korea; from a donkey-eyed view of the best and worst of humanity to a piercing French courtroom drama and a smouldering comedy of manners set on Germany's Baltic coast. These first films promise to exact a range of emotional responses."

By attending film festivals around the world, the programming team brings New Zealand audiences the very best of global cinema. With the Cannes Film Festival occurring later this month, there is still plenty to be reviewed and selected. Further announcements will be made over the next couple of months.

NZIFF will open in Auckland on Wednesday 19 July 2023, followed by Wellington on the following Thursday 27 July, and Dunedin and Christchurch on 3 and 10 August respectively. The remaining centres will follow with the festival ending on 10 September.

The first five films for NZIFF 2023:

PAST LIVES
Celine Song’s gorgeous, intensely bittersweet romance ruminates on the lives and loves of two childhood friends fleetingly reunited after decades apart – a remarkable debut feature that was the talk of Sundance.

Read more here

EO
Strap in for an unforgettable, visionary trip, an Oscar-nominated journey that stunned Cannes with its cinematic flair. Your hosts? An octogenarian Polish auteur – and a donkey.

Read more here

AFIRE
Christian Petzold braids desire, artistic insecurity and the looming threat of climate change in his smouldering comedy of manners set over the course of a hot summer holiday on a Baltic coastline beset with forest fires.

Read more here

SAINT OMER
Drawing on a tragic true event, this multi-awarded and mesmerising, stately courtroom drama upends notions of race, cultural heritage, class and female agency, and the mythologies and social prejudices underpinning received ideas.

Read more here

BEYOND UTOPIA

In this astonishing, edge-of-the-seat chronicle, the camera follows audacious, high-risk quests to escape from North Korea, and the man who plans them, with a rare intimacy and emotional power.

Read more here

Full programme and schedule details will be available at the end of June.

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