Preview: NZ International Film Festival – Part II

This year’s New Zealand International Film Festival has confirmed 20 titles that screened at Cannes, including several prize winners .

Two Days, One Night (Deux jours, une nuit) The Belgium-based Dardenne brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc, have twice won the premier Palme d'Or at Cannes but missed out this time with a workplace drama about a woman who has only one weekend to persuade her colleagues to give up their bonuses so she doesn't lose her job.

Force Majeure An avalanche disrupts the skiing holiday of a Swedish family in the French alps. As the mother calls to the father for help to protect the children, he takes off to save his life and leave consequences to be faced later.

The Salt of the Earth This documentary about Brazilian adventurer-photopgrapher Sebastiao Salgado by Wim Wenders and Salgado's son Juliano won a Special Prize at Cannes. Salgado is most famous for his photos of teeming, dirt-covered goldminers in the mid-1980s.

Charlie’s Country The unmistakable face of David Gulpilil won the Best Actor award in Cannes' Un Certain Regard sideshow for unusual fare. Director Rolf de Heer’s latest examination of race relations in Australia and the impact of colonisation on the Aboriginal culture is also a celebration of one man's will to survive against the odds.

Cold In July Jim Mickle’s Texas-set thriller stars Dexter's Michael C Hill as a meek, mullet-haired family man whose life is changed when he shoots a home invader and is then stalked by the dead man's career crimnal father, who has just been paroled.

When Animals Dream (Nar dyrene drommer) This Danish art-house horror film impressed its Critics' Week audience, who liked its Nordic Noir resemblance to the original Let the Right One In. When the shy teenage heroine gets in touch with her inner werewolf in a remore fighting village, the body count soon starts rising.

Maïdan A hot from the headlines documentary named after the square in Ukraine's capital where the reverberations of an uprising against a pro-Russian regime are still being felt.

The Rover Guy Pearce stars in a gutsy Outback thriller by Australian director David Michod (Animal Kingdom). Twilight star Robert Pattinson also features as a "left for dead" accomplice to car thieves, who are being tracked by Pearce, a hardened, ruthless ex-soldier.

It Follows An American arthouse thriller that has attracted much praise for its suspense and avoidance of clichés usually associated with the genre of a young woman threatened by a mysterious stalker.

See part 1 of the preview to the NZ International Film Festival here

All films are confirmed to screen in Auckland and Wellington. Further location listings will be advised on www.nziff.co.nz  once availability and distributor arrangements are confirmed.

The complete NZIFF programme will be available in Auckland from Tuesday, June 24, and in Wellington from Friday, June 27. NZIFF screens in Auckland from July 17 to August 3 and in Wellington from July 25 to August 10.