Each year, we ask members of the Wellington Film Society committee to tell us what they’re most looking forward to in this year’s Festival. While a lot of this year’s screenings are selling fast, we hope this provides you with new ways of thinking about the films in the programme!
Harry says: My picks are going to be focussed on connections to the Wellington Film Society’s 2025 programme! But first a plug for the film we’re sponsoring this year: Ari Aster’s Covid-era Western Eddington. I am pretty curious about this one which seems to be a little divisive. Maybe the acceleration of some aspects of our politics and culture during this time remain too unpleasant to return to! While I found Beau is Afraid a little hard going, it was a fascinatingly honest and disturbing view into Aster’s psyche. Adding that to Midsommar and Hereditary, Aster is a rare thing – a totally in-control mainstream-ish Hollywood filmmaker making exactly the films he wants to.
My next is probably the hardest sell: a two-hour documentary about bull fighting. Afternoons of Solitude comes from the Spanish director Albert Serra, who made Pacifiction, which we played at WFS earlier this year. Pacifiction was a slow burn political thriller about the French being up to no good in the Pacific (again). I really hadn’t enjoyed the other film of Serra’s I’d seen, but Pacifiction blew me away so I am curious about what Serra could make of the – on the face of it – totally unappealing prospect of watching animals be killed for two hours.
On a lighter note, NZIFF has just started announcing some extra titles, and included is Nouvelle Vague, Richard Linklater’s new film about the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, made in the style of the French New Wave. The connection here is that we’re playing Godard’s La Chinoise in September. Nouvelle Vague is getting great reviews including from one of my favourite critics, the New Yorker‘s Justin Chang: “It shouldn’t work, but really it does…a playful Who’s Who of late-fifties French film, a wittily engrossing and ultra-disciplined execution of a conceit that sounded self-indulgent on paper. ”
Johnny says:
Resurrection, dir Bi Gan
Chinese wunderkind Bi Gan is often seen as one of the inheritors of Andrei Tarkovsky’s legacy. Much like the celebrated Soviet filmmaker, his films are at once described by critics as ‘transcendent’ and ‘boring’, usually both! When his last film, Long Day’s Journey into Night (my favourite of NZIFF 2019), flourished with a 59-minute unbroken 3D shot I started levitating in row E. I cannot wait to see how he weaves a science fiction narrative all the way through China’s twentieth century into the future and the realm of dreams. Expect impeccably choreographed shots that last up to half an hour and leave irreversible burn-marks on your neural pathways.
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989, dir Göran Hugo Olsson
One of the unexpected joys of 2025 is the abundance of films that use archival footage effectively. From features like Nickel Boys and Caught by the Tides, to series like Shifty and shorts like Palcorecore, collage filmmaking has never been better. Even the new Mission Impossible was half clip-show. For a filmmaker to turn this technique to his own country’s coverage of the most pressing moral issue of our era is a must-watch for me. I may not be well-versed in the Swedish media landscape but I’m sure there’ll be plenty of parallels with our own national broadcaster.
Adam says:
In Judaism we are taught that the world stands on three pillars: on learning; on practice (spiritual, but also physical work and mahi); and on acts of service to mankind [Pirke Avot 1:2]. Anyone can tell you that our world is wobbling; looking around there seems to be a great unbalance in the pillars on which this world sits.
As a Jewish person it’s imperative that I speak out against a country and a people who presume to speak for me, and yet choose to commit acts so violent and malevolent that they break the very foundations of our world, causing it to teeter on the edge of the abyss.
Rebuilding the world is another central tenet in Judaism, and to foster this healing I would like to recommend that we start with some learning, and especially learning from diverse voices. There are three films on offer this year at the NZIFF from Palestine and on the history of the region: Happy Holidays, from Scandar Copti; Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, from Sepideh Farsi, and Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989, from Göran Hugo Olsson. Each of these offerings should bring something unique to our perspectives on the narrative of this moment in history, regardless of personal background or experience.
Let these films transport you. Let them stir in you something that is uncomfortable, resilient, ashamed, or even angry. Through art, and especially cinema, we can learn about each other. And this is how we repair the pillars of the world. This is how we see each other as individuals worth putting in the mahi for, and worth putting in acts of service towards.
Russ says:
The Mastermind, dir. Kelly Reichardt.
I’ve been following the career of Josh O’Connor since his heartbreaking performance in God’s Own Country, and now here he is in Kelly Reichardt’s new film in what might be the most perfect pairing of actor and director. Reichardt, of course, you might know from First Cow in the 2024 WFS programme. Her earthy, spun-wool style feels like a surprising choice for a low-key heist film, which is what makes this so compelling to me. O’Connor does his best work playing sadsacks who are out of their depth (in an affectionate way). Look at the image for this film in the programme and you’ll know all you need about this guy.
Sex, dir. Dag Johan Haugerud
It’s a queer programme this year, with nearly a dozen different films exploring different sexualities. Haugerud’s trilogy is the most sustained exploration of sexuality and identity this year, and Sex, about two supposedly straight men who suddenly find themselves questioning the stability of their heterosexuality, promises to be a fascinating night at the movies. Rather than select the most photogenic or cliched occupation for his characters, Haugerud has picked two chimney sweeps – a choice that immediately sweeps away (no pun intended) all my preconceptions. Even if ‘deconstructing masculinity’ doesn’t sound like a fun night, this film seems sure to be entertaining and thought-provoking.
Twinless, dir. James Sweeney
Tumblr went mad for this when the first scenes were leaked: heartthrob Dylan O’Brien (from Teen Wolf!) in a queer comedy! Leaving aside the parasocial giddiness more online viewers might feel, the reviews for this one indicate that O’Brien has honed serious acting chops. He’s paired with writer-director-star Sweeney in a film that starts off as a bromance about two men who meet in a support group for recently-bereaved twins, but morphs into something a bit darker about twenty minutes in. Will there be some sort of Fight Club reveal? Maybe! I can’t wait to find out.