The votes have been counted, and from a great season, three films have been voted your favourites. It shouldn’t be surprising that they also received the top 3 scores in your weekly ratings during the year.
A favourite on it’s first screening here at NZIFF 2001, In the Mood for Love, got the most votes for it’s 2022 screening in Wellington.
In second place was the live music performance of Faust, while our final screening for the year, Nashville was a close third.
In the Mood for Love
- In the Mood for Love. I love the cinematography. The cigarette smoke wafting upwards against a black wall, the costumes, the music. How can one go past Nat King Cole singing perhaps perhaps perhaps in spanish…
- Every element of this film was absolutely beautiful
- I’ve always wanted to see this film and it was amazing to be able to see it on the huge Embassy screen.
Faust
- Faust – much anticipated after so many delays, with the live music it was spectacular, a most enjoyable event.
- The live music combined with a film so far outside of my usual viewing habits made for a truly unique and enjoyable experience.
- I’d sell my soul for more live cinema in Wellington.
Nashville
- So thrilled to finally see this on the big screen, what an absolute triumph!
- Altman is a neglected director when it comes to retrospective screenings and this is arguably his greatest film – so happy to have watched it on the Embassy screen.
- I think Nashville might be the best American film ever made.
The 2022 Best Comments Awards
As usual, your insightful comments were a pleasure to read, so much so that we created two special awards for comments not attached to a top three film.
Award for cool brevity
Noir-vember’s The Killers, encouraged hard-boiled prose, with comments like “Can’t beat that with a stick – loved the one-take heist …” as well as the enigmatic “Fortunately the script only used the word Betelgeuse once”.
It also provided the inspiration for our standout winner in this category. For its use of lyrics from a pop single rich in Roeg-esque references, the award for cool brevity goes to:
Man dies first reel. People ask, “What’s the deal?”
Award for enjoying watching the movies with us
Our weekly ratings for The King of Jazz lagged behind everything else in the programme, and this commenter did not disagree. But they had this to say about the experience of watching a film that some people had to get away early from:
My favourite thing about WFS, is being able to watch films, that if I had watched alone at home I would have turned off. Like The King of Jazz. An absolutely ludicrous collection of vignettes that I 100% would have turned off. But watching it with a crowd (even though a number of people left) made this so enjoyable. Often it’s not the film that I enjoy most, it’s the experience of watching it with other members. We’re all there for the same reason, to watch great films, and I love the vibe.