Film Festival Picks

The 2012 New Zealand International Film Festival starts today in Auckland, and if you've been too busy to keep up with what's playing and what might be good, here's a quick list of picks from each section of the programme to help you out:

ANIMATION
From Up on Poppy Hill - This wistful-looking new feature from Studio Ghibli master Hayao Miyazaki's son Goro looks about 100% better than this first film (Tales from Earthsea, ughh). Always a treat to catch Japanese animation on the big screen.

AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND
How To Meet Girls from a Distance - I can imagine a future when there's a bigger budget, star-studded remake of this but for now let's just see how the winner of last year's Make My Movie competition turned out.

ARMED AND DANGEROUS
Killer Joe - see here.

BIG NIGHTS & SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
The Shining / Holy Motors - If you're a horror fan and you're not even going to entertain the thought of catching The Shining at the Civic...I can't even. And Holy Motors? Leos Carax's mind-bender seems to be the festival's hot ticket to WTF City.

CHAMPIONS
Undefeated - This year's Oscar winner for Best Documentary feature. Inspirational sports doc.

FRAMING REALITY
The Imposter - Totally can't wait for this "mesmerizing psychological thriller bulging with twists, turns, nasty insinuations and shocking revelations" (Hollywood Reporter). PS. It's a doco.

GO SLOW
In the Fog - The most challenging section of the festival but sometimes the most rewarding. Any film you pick here will not be like any other film in the festival. I spun the wheel and landed on In the Fog, which looks perfectly ponderous.

INCREDIBLY STRANGE
The Cabin in the Woods - see here.

MUSICIANS! DANCERS!
Searching for Sugar Man - Crowd-pleasing music doco about the search for long lost Mexican/American singer-songwriter who did this catchy little number. Early word has been very positive.

NEW DIRECTIONS
Compliance - This one is going to turn heads. Best to go in cold apparently and be completely horrified by what happens.

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST
Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present - Doco on amazing performance artist whose most famous piece involves sitting silently for 3 months in a gallery and allowing the public to encounter her.

WORLDS OF DIFFERENCE
The Sun Beaten Path - I love a good otherworldy ethnographic flick and this Tibetan movie ticks all the boxes. Landscapes, spirituality, completely foreign place and people, etc.

Happy film festivalling!