Late last week, and early this week, the peeps at New Zealand International Film Festival HQ announced more films for their 2013 line-up – along with a look at this year’s programme/poster artwork.
The new additions aretwo very different black and white pics (Blancanieves and Frances Ha), Kiwi rock-doc Sheen of Gold, US snowboarding doco The Crash Reel, upcoming horror maestro Adam Wingard‘s You’re Next, and festival veteran Sally Potter‘s coming-of-age drama Ginger & Rosa (starring Elle Fanning and Alice Englert).
An exciting and eclectic bunch of films if ever there was one. Here are all the details:
BLANCANIEVES
Spain | 104 minutes | Drama, Fantasy
Director: Pablo Berger (Torremolinos 73)
Cast: Maribel Verdú, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Ángela Molina, Pere Ponce, Macarena García, Sofía Oria, Josep Maria Pou, Inma Cuesta, Ramón Barea, Emilio Gavira
‘Blancanieves’ is a gothic melodrama inspired by the Brothers’ Grimm tale. Once upon a time there was a little girl who had never met her mother, and she grew up being hated by her evil stepmother. She learned her father’s art, a famous bullfighter, and one day she ran away to become a legend. Set in 1920s south of Spain, ‘Blancanieves’ is a tribute to silent films.
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FRANCES HA
USA | 86 minutes | Comedy, Drama
Director: Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale)
Cast: Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Charlotte d’Amboise, Adam Driver, Michael Zegen, Hannah Dunne, Michael Esper, Grace Gummer, Patrick Heusinger, Josh Hamilton
Frances (Gerwig) is a 27-year-old dancer who lives with her best friend Sophie (Sumner), but Sophie decides to move out and live with another friend, leaving Frances to figure out how to live her life.
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GINGER & ROSA
Denmark, UK | 90 minutes | Drama
Director: Sally Potter (The Tango Lesson)
Cast: Elle Fanning, Alice Englert, Alessandro Nivola, Christina Hendricks, Timothy Spall, Oliver Platt, Jodhi May, Annette Bening, Andrew Hawley
London, 1962: Two teenage girls, Ginger (Fanning) and Rosa (Englert), are inseparable. They play truant together, discuss religion, politics and hairstyles, and dream of lives bigger than their mothers’ frustrated domesticity. But as the Cold War meets the sexual revolution, the lifelong friendship of the two girls is threatened.
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SHEEN OF GOLD
New Zealand | 80 minutes | Documentary, Rock
Director: Simon Ogston (Rumble & Bang)
Featuring: David D’Ath, Robin Gauld, John Halvorsen, Brent McLachlan, Nick Roughan, Don White, Chris Knox, Roger Shepherd, Sarah Fort-D’Ath, Stu Page, Tone Cornaga, Chris Matthews, Russell Brown, Bob Sutton, Jon Toogood, Jed Town
Simon Ogston’s 80-minute documentary tells the complete and compelling story of Skeptics, one of New Zealand’s most original and influential bands.
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THE CRASH REEL
USA | 107 minutes | Documentary, Sport
Director: Lucy Walker (Waste Land)
Featuring: Kevin Pearce, Shaun White, Mason Aguirre, Daniel Amen, Sarah Burke, Rory Bushfield, Danny Davis, Kyla Donnelly, Ellery Hollingsworth, C.R. Johnson, Jack Mitrani, Luke Mitrani, Scotty Lago, David Pearce, Simon Pearce
‘The Crash Reel’ is an intimate story of U.S. champion snowboarder Kevin Pearce uses years of vérité footage to expose the excitement and appeal, as well as the high stakes, of participating in extreme-action sports. Training to compete at the 2010 Winter Olympics, Kevin crashed and suffered severe traumatic brain injury. His Vermont family began an intensive process of trying to rehabilitate him and help him rebuild his permanently damaged life. Academy Award-nominated director Lucy Walker sheds light on the alarming trend of athletes pushing the boundaries of their sports past the limit and shares one family’s remarkable journey.
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YOU’RE NEXT
USA | 96 minutes | Horror, Thriller
Director: Adam Wingard (V/H/S)
Cast: Sharni Vinson, Nicholas Tucci, Wendy Glenn, A.J. Bowen, Joe Swanberg, Margeret Laney, Amy Seimetz, Ti West, Rob Moran, Barbara Crampton
One of the smartest and most terrifying films in years, ‘You’re Next’ reinvents the genre by putting a fresh twist on home-invasion horror. When a gang of masked, ax-wielding murderers descend upon the Davison family reunion, the hapless victims seem trapped…until an unlikely guest of the family proves to be the most talented killer of all.
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Keen to see any of these? And stay tuned for more announcements as the team compile their Cannes picks.
The 2013 New Zealand International Film festival is currently confirmed to screen in the following locations:
Auckland: 18 July – 4 August
Wellington: 26 July – 11 August
Christchurch: 1 – 18 August
Dunedin: 8 – 25 August
Gore: 14 – 25 August
Palmerston North: 15 August – 1 September
Hamilton: 22 August – 15 September
Nelson: 28 August – 15 September
Tauranga: 12 – 29 September
Masterton: 16 – 30 October
Hawke’s Bay: 16 October – 3 November
New Plymouth: 24 October – 6 November
The programme for NZIFF Auckland will be released Tuesday 25 June, and the Wellington programme on 28 June. Auckland tickets will be available from 28 June, with Wellington tickets available from Tuesday 2 July.
As always, head on over to the official NZIFF site (here) for more information.
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