A broker of lucrative payoffs between corrupt corporations and the individuals who threaten them breaks his own rules when a new client seeks his protection to stay alive.

In May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff and mayor sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.

From the makers of Fantail and Baby Done, Workmates is a funny, heartfelt love story starring Sophie Henderson and Matt Whelan as Lucy and Tom, best friends, theatre-makers and co-workers. When an accident threatens to shut down the tiny, underfunded theatre they've built together and Tom wants out, Lucy realises she would do anything to save the theatre and keep her friend… who she might be in love with.

Set against the grit of post-war Wales, MR BURTON is the extraordinary true story of a working-class boy destined for greatness and the teacher who saw it first.

An interrelated, multistory horror epic about the disappearance of high school students in a small town.

Starring Oscar nominees Naomi Watts and Bill Murray, alongside Bing the Great Dane, THE FRIEND is an unexpected and heartwarming journey through love, friendship, grief.

A desperately single bookseller, lost in a fantasy world, finds herself forced to fulfil her dreams of becoming a writer in order to stop messing up her love life.

Gillian Anderson (Sex Education), Vanessa Kirby (The Crown), and Ben Foster (Lone Survivor) lead the cast in Tennessee Williams' timeless masterpiece, returning to cinemas. As Blanche's fragile world crumbles, she turns to her sister Stella for solace - but her downward spiral brings her face to face with the brutal, unforgiving Stanley Kowalski. From visionary director Benedict Andrews, this acclaimed production was filmed live during a sold-out run at the Young Vic Theatre in 2014.

Follows the titular superhero as he reconciles his heritage with his human upbringing. He is the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way in a world that views this as old-fashioned.

"The innocent spring that the two strongest lost forever." The tale of curses that you can't miss out on is airing once again in cinemas— This is the innocent spring that the two strongest lost forever. June 2018, Yuji Itadori allows Ryomen Sukuna to inhabit his body. December 2017, Yuta Okkotsu frees the Curse, Rika Orimoto. Now, time goes further back to (Spring) 2006, when Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto were still high school students. Both were active as Jujutsu Sorcerers with no enemy that could match them when they received a mission from Tengen, the cornerstone of Jujutsu society, who wields the cursed technique of Immortality. Their mission involves two goals. To escort and erase the Star Plasma Vessel, Riko Amanai, the young girl compatible with Tengen. The two set out on their mission to protect her for the continuation of Jujutsu society, but the Sorcerer Killer going by Fushiguro interferes, intent on assassinating the Star Plasma Vessel… The past that drove apart Gojo, the strongest jujutsu sorcerer, and Geto, the evilest curse user, will finally be revealed.

One of Marvel's most iconic families makes it to the big screen: the Fantastic Four.

A New Friend for Tummy Tom takes place on a beautiful, snowy winter's day, when a new dog on the block turns the lives of Tummy Tom and Cat Mouse upside down.

Once upon a time Stevie Wonder rowed across the ocean to visit Paul McCartney in his Scottish cottage to collaborate on a catchy pop ditty espousing the virtues of racial harmony. Ebony and Ivory may not be the true story of the creation of same-titled 80s classic by two musical legends, but it has to be the more exciting version of events. Instead of creating a traditional biopic, Jim Hosking (The Greasy Strangler, NZIFF 2016),reimagines this historic collaboration as a brain melting comedy that will surely be one of the wildest film trips of this year, or any year. Sky Escobar plays Paul as an overly accommodating host with an obsession for readymade vegetarian snacks, while Gil Gex plays Stevie as a perpetually angry and unstable man that seems to hate everything that Paul does. Combining the incredibly bad taste of classic John Waters films, with the delirious absurdity and horror of classic Tim & Eric skits, Ebony and Ivory takes comedy to a cliff and pushes it off. A place that will either be a heavenly and humorous fever dream or your worst nightmare. — Jordan Salomen

This thriller about two rival farming families in Ireland turns neighbours from hell up to the max. Michael(Christopher Abbot) is a sheep farmer living with his disabled father and still reeling from the guilt of causing the car accident that killed his mother. He lives a life of isolation and devoted to working the farm. When two of his rams turn up dead on an adjacent property he has reason to believe that his neighbour's son, Jack(Barry Keoghan), has something to do with it. When Michael finds Jack trying to sell his, very much alive, rams, Jack denies they are Michael's, which leads to a series of escalations and revenge threatening the downfall of both families. A gripping portrait what happens when toxic masculinity and the refusal to back down gets in the way of proper communication and violence is seen as the only option. The leads both deliver performances that prove that they are two of the best young actors of their generation. Told in a non-linear fashion that gives us a chance to delve deeper into each family's motivations, while never letting up the momentum that makes this an intense watch. — Jordan Salomen

Based on the award-winning short of the same name, Spanish filmmaker Eva Libertad's debut follows couple Ángela and Héctor as they make the transition into parenthood. Ángela is deaf. Héctor is not. When she tells them she's pregnant, her own parents can't hide their shocked dubiety, loving but concerned that their daughter will be unable to tackle the task of motherhood. Will the baby be born deaf? Will they be able to hear? Uncertainty abounds as the due date draws closer, and it's not just Ángela's parents who are beginning to have doubts. The foundations for the film's narrative derive from the personal experiences of first-time actor Miriam Garlo, Libertad's own sister, as she began to contemplate motherhood as a deaf woman. When surrounded by her other deaf friends, Ángela is comfortable, alive, vibrant within a community that supports her. Around the local mums in the park, or her husband's friends, isolation sets in with a painful immediacy that anyone who has ever been in a foreign country and struggled to understand the language will know all too well. A poignant story bound by the chemistry of its leads, deafness is woven into the film as a lived experience, not a defining label. — Matt Bloomfield

Still reeling from the death of their mother and wife, Ahmet's family are broken. His father, struggling to come to terms with being sole provider and caretaker for the family, pulls Ahmet from school indefinitely so he can care for their flock of sheep; meanwhile, his younger brother has become non-verbal since their mother's death. Music is both medicine and matchmaker for young Ahmet, who escapes his grief and the grim mundanity of life under his oppressive father by blasting beats from the world's junkiest stereo system to impress local girl Aya, back from Germany to be betrothed to an older man. A modern-day Romeo and Juliet, the stunning Yuruk mountain village of Kodzalia replaces Verona while the Montagues and Capulets make way for an eclectic support cast, with a technophobic imam, a souped-up tractor and a fluorescent pink sheep all taking the stage. If music be the food of love, then DJ Ahmet is a feast of thumping electro and dancefloor anthems that spurs on the teenage protagonist as he fumbles through the throes of his first romance. An accessible and entertaining crowd-pleaser. — Matt Bloomfield

Laura and Betty seem to be poles apart. Laura, a young, city dwelling music student, lives in an apartment with her boyfriend; Betty has an adult son and lives alone in rural Germany. Their lives are thrown together after a car accident leaves Laura in the care of the older woman. Despite ostensible differences, each recognises a familiar melancholy in the other. As a tentative trust grows, the women find something unlocking within themselves, even as complicating factors emerge, in the form of Betty's opaque family situation. Master dramatist Christian Petzold reunites with frequent acting collaborator Paula Beer (Transit, Undine, Afire) and regular DOP Hans Fromm, turning his pen and camera to a smaller scale domestic drama. Mirrors No. 3 (named for a Ravel piano piece played within) makes visual and thematic echoes back to Petzold's previous work: from extended bike rides down rural lanes (Barbara), to the centrality of a piano (Phoenix), as well as the thread of mysterious tension that underlies them all. The film revels in the messy, stimulating complexities of human relationships, exploring the way that sometimes even questionable motivations can affect positive outcomes. — Jacob Powell

For Hlynur Pálmason, nature and drama are closely intertwined—his previous works, including the operatically vast Godland, set their stories against beautiful but cosmically uninterested landscapes, which would eventually swallow all things, from the grandest cathedrals to the lowliest peasants. The environment is of central concern, but to different ends, in The Love That Remains, a deeply harmonious, lightly surreal portrait of a family adrift in the wake of a parental separation, and the natural world they're in constant communion with.

Inspired by true events, Plainclothes is set in upstate New York in 1997 and follows Lucas (Tom Blyth), an undercover cop tasked with luring and apprehending gay men in public bathrooms. Professionally and personally, Lucas is expected to adhere to a conventional masculinity that society has prescribed him, but the security and privilege that comes with this persona is threatened when he forms a romantic attachment to one of his targets.

The cataclysms and cruelties of the last century in Germany had such a psychic impact they can feel like they still haunt the walls. It's this mysterious sense of collapsed time and Gothic dread that imbues the world of director Mascha Schilinski's poetic second feature, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes, and saw her heralded as German cinema's most exciting new voice. "Phantom pains" refer to the sensation of an amputee bed-ridden in an old farmhouse in the north of the country, but they could just as easily be describing the daily existence of the four generations of women who pass through the home over a span of decades, and are subject to the violence and inherited trauma that have blighted the society through its darkest, authoritarian turns and divisions. The lives of Alma, Erika, Angelika, and Lenka mirror one another in cumulative and surprising ways, as we follow the evolution and hidden abuses of the household through a mesmeric, smudged lens of candlelit gloom and glimmers of blue - a silent, collective scream for a nation in which death has been all too close to life. — Carmen Gray

The chaotic unravelling of Romania's 1989 Revolution and the fall of Ceausescu and its Communist regime has been given the cinematic treatment before, notably in Corneliu Porumboiu's 12:08 East of Bucharest (NZIFF 2006). Nearly twenty years later, writer-director Bogdan Muresanu revisits the events leading up to that historical moment in his finely crafted feature debut.

Leroy (Emilio Mancilla) is battling to get his debut novel completed, struggling through a bout of writer's block while house sitting for a friend. He finds his creative breakthrough in the eyes of the iridescent fish, Kirby, that has been left in his care-not just inspiring, Kirby seems to actively unlock something in Leroy's mind.

There has hardly been any investigation on contemporary male identity and sexuality as candid, insightful and hilarious as Norwegian auteur Dag Johan Haugerud's Sex. After winning all major laurels in Nordic cinema with his impressive fresco Beware of Children (2019), the acclaimed director and author embarkson an Oslo-set trilogy simply called Sex Dreams Love. The first instalment opens on one of the most tantalising and unexpected preludes in recent cinema. Two chimney sweeps frankly open up to each other on a coffee break in their office: the first reveals that he dreamt of being intensely looked at by none other than David Bowie, who was inspecting him as if he was a woman; the other confesses that he recently accepted the sexual advances of a male customer who asked him to have sex with him. But both men are "straight" and married to women. Here, the deft tone of the film and Haugerud's rules of the game are immediately set. A fervent admirer of Eric Rohmer's thickly scripted skirmishes of love and ethics, the Norwegian writer-director infuses irony, depth and compassion in each of his elegantly composed tableaux depicting how the two men cope with the turmoil these experiences bring to their relationships with their partners and family, but most of all with themselves. Featuring some of the brightest and funniest dialogues of 2024, Sex is a real eye-opener. — Paolo Bertolin

When their baby is kidnapped with no immediate leads, Junyang (Wu Chien-Ho) and Peiying (Anicca Panna) are understandably distraught. Things become even more intense when DVDs start to land on their doorstep, with footage of them shot from a handheld camera. They start to suspect their neighbour of stalking them and being the kidnapper of their child, then to uncover secrets - about the neighbour and each other - that lead to unforeseen consequences. But will these revelations lead them any closer to the whereabouts of their child? Classic surveillance-themed thrillers such as Lost Highway and Sliver get an update as director Yeo Siew Hua uses modern technology to create an unrivalled atmosphere of paranoia and unease. In an era where social media and personal branding has replaced community and bonds with our actual neighbours, Stranger Eyes calls the culture of the camera into question. — Jordan Salomen

A highlight selection of the best short films from Ngā Whanaunga: Aotearoa New Zealand's Best 2025, including all award winners, will screen in the regions.

Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art was the largest Māori exhibition in the history of Auckland Art Gallery and attracted attendance levels not seen by the gallery since 1989. But its triumph masked a deeper tension. Chelsea Winstanley's documentary follows the journey of curator Nigel Borell as he navigates the constraints between institutional authority and Māori self-determination. Borell's curatorial vision is clear - Māori art must be authored, not simply advocated for. For the artists, this represents a chance to be seen on their own terms, and is an initiative that ultimately leads some to the global stage of the Venice Biennale. But as the scale of the exhibition grows, so does the institutional resistance. The result is a reckoning: whose story is being told, and who holds the pen? With many of the artworks exploring the legacy of colonialism, the making of the exhibition itself becomes a living reflection of that very struggle. Laying bare behind-the-scenes conversations rarely seen on screen, TOITŪ Visual Sovereignty lifts the curtain on the inner workings of an institution and examines the cost of visibility without control - and the quiet power of walking away. — Heperi Mita

When his brother is suddenly killed in a car accident, estranged sibling Roman (Dylan O'Brien) suffers the unique pain of being permanently severed from his twin. Inseparable in childhood, the brothers drifted apart as adults, brother Rocky (also O'Brien) living out and proud in Portland while Roman lived a (decidedly hetero) tradie life in hometown Idaho. It seems he'll never have the chance to work through his complicated feelings towards his twin until stumbling upon a bereavement group for just such a purpose. There he meets Dennis (James Sweeney). Neurotic, sarcastic, gay, he's the opposite that attracts as the pair bond over trauma and a deep need for attachment. They quickly become each other's emotional support twin-surrogate, on call for late night grocery trips, afterwork bitch sessions, and road trip singalongs. But odd couple bliss can't last, as Dennis has more than friendship in mind, Roman grapples with explosive anger issues, and dark secrets inevitably come to light. Sweeny's sophomore effort as writer, director, and co-star walks an entertaining balance between discomfort and hilarity. With finely calibrated performances from both leads, Twinless is witty, warped, and surprisingly warm hearted. — Adrian Hatwell

It's 1937 in the Soviet Union, at the height of Stalin's Great Purge. Commitment to the truth is a deadly professional risk for anyone working in the justice system, where made-up accusations are leveraged to oust the idealistic and replace them with the loyal incompetents needed to shore up brute power. Letters written in jail are routinely censored and burnt inside its walls. But a missive by a political prisoner requesting an ear over systematic maltreatment and attempts to extract false confessions miraculously reaches the desk of the new prosecutor, Kornev, who travels to meet with its desperate author. Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa has long been adept at portraying the grim dances of state repression and civic resistance. This icily precise, impressively acted dissection of "communist justice," which comes first for its most stubborn believers and leaves just the rotten from top to bottom, has a touch of the grotesque wit of Kafka, and won rave reviews at Cannes. Based on a novella by Georgy Demidov, himself imprisoned for fourteen years, this newly relevant story is impeccably lensed as a queasy tunnel of slow-burn, claustrophobic inevitability. — Carmen Gray

Germany has a thorny history with mass intelligence gathering, and a continued vigilance around data privacy - and anxiety. Director Frédéric Hambalek taps into it with satirical, ribald flair and a twist of the fantastical in a sharp domestic parable for a new era of global surveillance paranoia. Julia (Julia Jentsch) is precariously close to a full-blown affair with the workmate she flirts with on smoking breaks. Her husband Tobias (Felix Kramer) dreams of getting even with a publishing house colleague who undercuts his authority in editorial design meetings. When their teenager Marielle (Laeni Geiseler) is slapped by a school friend over an insult, the impact leaves her with the sudden telepathic ability to see everything her parents do throughout the day - a development that spells disaster for the household, as dishonesty can no longer sustain the veneer of stable marital contentment. As the family descends into a desperate, riotous war of manipulation, they must experiment with new moral codes. Is radical honesty and defiance the best course of action, or should they stifle egos and instincts in line with their preferred image? Better yet, can Marielle's new powers be curbed? — Carmen Gray

Cannibalism, murder and betrayal are on the table in this riotous NZ horror comedy. Four holidaying friends come across a strain of weed that gives them the most extreme case of the munchies ever recorded.