The New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) ( mi, Whānau Mārama) is a

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon ...

held annually across

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The festival is operated by the New Zealand Film Festival Trust. It programmes international and New Zealand films.

History

The festival grew through a merger in 1984 of the Auckland International Film Festival (founded in 1969) and the Wellington Film Festival (founded 1972). In 2009, the festival didn't use regional names and united the various festivals under the banner of the New Zealand International Film Festival (using the abbreviation 'NZIFF'). Until then, each region had been promoted with the region’s name despite having shared a common programme and artwork since 2002. The festival has a tradition of supporting New Zealand filmmakers and

New Zealand cinema New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz (South Korean band), The Boyz Albums and EPs * New (album), ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartn ...

. In 1996 the New Zealand Film Festival Trust was set up by

Bill Sheat William Newton Sheat (1 May 1930 – 20 January 2021) was a New Zealand lawyer and arts advocate whose input was instrumental in many arts organisations including as a founding member of the New Zealand Film Commission, Creative New Zealand (f ...

, the founding chairperson who remained in that role until 2003. In 2019 long-serving festival Director Bill Gosden retired after 40 years of service. "I look back with pride on the astounding array of national and international filmmaking that has found its first New Zealand audience at NZIFF. I leave with great confidence that whoever steps up next will be working with a remarkable and cohesive crew who love NZIFF and know it backwards.” said Gosden. New Director Marten Rabarts was appointed in October 2019. Gosden died on the seventh of November 2020. In early 2020 General Manager Sharon Byrne resigned from the festival after more than twenty years of service and Communications Manager Rebecca McMillan resigned after a decade with the organisation. In November 2021 Director Marten Rabarts stood down from the festival. The Auckland part of the festival was cancelled in 2021 due to Covid-19 restrictions, Wellington screened 164 feature films. In 2023 there were 129 titles presented in 15 regions, a similar size to before

Covid-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

interrupted business. In November 2023 NZIFF released a 10-year strategy, ''Te Ahua o te Whānau Mārama'', citing the effects of the global pandemic and other aspects in New Zealand as affecting the viability of the festival. In early 2024 five key Festival Programmers all stood down from their roles with NZIFF. Senior Programmer Sandra Reid (after 30 years service); Incredibly Strange Programmer Ant Timpson (after 20 years service); Square Eyes Programmer Nicola Marshall (after 19 years service); Animation Programmer Malcolm Turner (after more than two decades service) and Asian & LGBTQ Programmer Vicci Ho (after four years service). The 2024 festival will start in July, but will only screen in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin (and in fewer venues, and over few days), cutting out Hamilton, Tauranga, Palmerston North, New Plymouth, Masterton, Hawke's Bay, Whangarei, Gisborne, Nelson, Gore and Timaru. Festival chairperson Catherine Fitzgerald said Covid-19 impacts over 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 have impacted the festival.

Auckland

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

was the first city in the country to have a film festival. Founded in 1969 as a component of the

Auckland Festival Formerly known as Auckland Festival, Auckland Arts Festival or is an annual arts and cultural festival held in Auckland, New Zealand. The Festival features works from New Zealand, the Pacific, Asia and beyond, including world premieres of new wor ...

, the Auckland International Film Festival (AIFF) in time became a fund-raising event subsidising live arts. Rescued from this role by the intervention of the New Zealand Federation of Film Societies in 1984, the AIFF achieved an audience in excess of 100,000 for the first time in 2005. In 2019, it achieved a record audience of over 112,000. The year 2000 marked the AIFF's return to the refurbished Civic Theatre, an

atmospheric theatre An atmospheric theatre is a type of movie palace design which was popular in the late 1920s. Atmospheric theatres were designed and decorated to evoke the feeling of a particular time and place for patrons, through the use of projectors, archit ...

built in 1929.

Wellington

The

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

Film Festival (WFF) was inaugurated by Lindsay Shelton and the Wellington Film Society with seven films in 1972. Thirty years later, it showed over 150 programmes to audiences in excess of 71,000. In 2018, it exceeded 84,000 admits. The main venue is the Embassy Theatre, and the WFF and NZIFF have played a major role in the theatre's rehabilitation and continuing refurbishment.

Dunedin and Christchurch

Founded in 1977, the

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

manifestation of the Festival presented a highlights package of 75 features, plus

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

s, at the Regent Theatre. Founded along with the Dunedin event in 1977, the

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

Festival presented substantially the same programme.

Other regions

Often a selection of festival titles traveled around New Zealand, making the NZIFF unique on the world film-festival stage. Provincial centres covered by the festival included

Gore Gore may refer to: Places Australia * Gore, Queensland * Gore Creek (New South Wales) * Gore Island (Queensland) Canada * Gore, Nova Scotia, a rural community * Gore, Quebec, a township municipality * Gore Bay, Ontario, a township on Manitouli ...

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

Hawke's Bay Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region is ...

Masterton Masterton ( mi, Whakaoriori), a large town in the Greater Wellington Region of New Zealand, operates as the seat of the Masterton District (a territorial authority or local-government district). It is the largest town in the Wairarapa, a r ...

New Plymouth New Plymouth ( mi, Ngāmotu) is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the English city of Plymouth, Devon from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. ...

Palmerston North Palmerston North (; mi, Te Papa-i-Oea, known colloquially as Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatu Plains, the city is near the north bank of the ...

Tauranga Tauranga () is a coastal city in the Bay of Plenty region and the fifth most populous city of New Zealand, with an urban population of , or roughly 3% of the national population. It was settled by Māori late in the 13th century, colonised by ...

and

Timaru Timaru (; mi, Te Tihi-o-Maru) is a port city in the southern Canterbury Region of New Zealand, located southwest of Christchurch and about northeast of Dunedin on the eastern Pacific coast of the South Island. The Timaru urban area is home to ...

. In 2024 the festival is only appearing in four centres.

The New Zealand Film Festival Trust

The New Zealand Film Festival Trust, which runs the NZIFF, is a registered charitable entity under the

Charities Act 2005 The Charities Act is an Act of Parliament passed in New Zealand in 2005. One of the functions of the Act was setting up the Charities Commission. The Charities Act is administered by the Ministry of Social Development and the Department of I ...

, registration number CC23151. The NZ Film Festival Trust is governed by a board of trustees. Catherine Fitzgerald (Chair), Robin Laing,

Tearepa Kahi Tearepa Kahi (born 16 March 1994), also known as Te Arepa Kahi, is a New Zealand film director and former actor of Ngāti Paoa and Waikato Tainui descent. Kahi is best known for the 2013 drama '' Mt. Zion'' starring Stan Walker, and the Pātea M ...

, Chris Hormann (appointed by the New Zealand Federation of Film Societies), Andrew Langridge,

Toby Manhire Toby Manhire is a New Zealand journalist and columnist, and the editor at-large of online magazine ''The Spinoff''. He is the son of poet Bill Manhire. Career Manhire was editor of student magazine '' Salient'' in 1997. From 2000 to 2010 he wor ...

, Sharon Menzies and Kaine Thompson.

References

External links

* {{official website Film festivals in New Zealand Film festivals established in 1970 Festivals in Auckland Festivals in Christchurch Festivals in Dunedin Festivals in Wellington