The Devil Wears Prada 2
(M)
Almost twenty years after making their iconic turns as Miranda, Andy, Emily and Nigel - Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci return to the fashionable streets of New York City and the sleek offices of Runway Magazine in the eagerly awaited sequel to the 2006 phenomenon that defined a generation.
The Sheep Detectives
(PG)
In this witty, new breed of mystery, George (Hugh Jackman) is a shepherd who reads detective novels to his beloved sheep every night, assuming they can't possibly understand. But when a mysterious incident disrupts life on the farm, the sheep realise they must become the detectives. As they follow the clues and investigate human suspects, they prove that even sheep can be brilliant crime-solvers
Michael
(M)
Michael is the cinematic portrayal of the life and legacy of one of the most influential artists the world has ever known. The film tells the story of Michael Jackson's life beyond the music, tracing his journey from the discovery of his extraordinary talent as the lead of the Jackson Five, to the visionary artist whose creative ambition fueled a relentless pursuit to become the biggest entertainer in the world.
Hokum
(R13)
When reclusive novelist Ohm Bauman (Scott) retreats to a remote Irish inn to scatter his parents' ashes, the staff's tales of an ancient witch haunting the honeymoon suite take hold of his mind. Soon, disturbing visions and a shocking disappearance draw him into a nightmarish confrontation with the darkest corners of his past. In cinemas April 30.
RADFF26 The Great Arch
(PG)
In 1982, President François Mitterrand launched an international competition to design the flagship project of his term: a building to match and complement the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe. To the surprise of everyone, the commission is won by an unknown 53-year-old from Copenhagen, Johan Otto von Spreckelsen. Inspired by remarkable true events, Claes Bang leads a superb ensemble cast in this historical drama, as an idealistic architect whose quest to build an ambitious landmark in Paris triggers unforeseen consequences.
Sgt Haane
(M)
The never-been-told true story of SGT. HAANE from award-winning writer and director Tearepa Kahi (Muru, Poi E: The Story of Our Song, Mt. Zion). This documentary-drama film follows Lance Sgt. Haane Manahi DCM (Te Arawa, Ngāti Raukawa) of B Company, 28th Māori Battalion, a soldier of extraordinary courage, whose actions proved pivotal in the 1943 battle for the fortified summit of Takrouna, Tunisia.
RADFF26 Parallel Universe: The Art and Design of Roy Good
(E)
Roy Good is a rare figure in New Zealand art: a painter, designer and spatial thinker who never separated disciplines. Influenced by Bauhaus and De Stijl, he embedded abstraction into popular television shows, national logos and shaped canvases alike. Working from his small studio in the wilderness of West Auckland, he quietly pioneered one of the country's most consistent and original modernist practices. This insightful documentary reveals an artist of global significance, working from the edge of the world.
The Weed Eaters
(R13)
When Jules joins her new boyfriend on a New Year's Eve getaway with his old high school mates, she's looking to get some peace and quiet, smoke a bit of weed, and make some new friends. But when the holidaymakers stumble across their host's long-forgotten stash of ancient weed, things quickly take a turn for the nightmarish.
Project Hail Mary
(M)
Science teacher Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: solve the riddle of the mysterious substance causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction… but an unexpected friendship means he may not have to do it alone.
RADFF26 Peter Hujar's Day
(M)
The photographer Peter Hujar, whose images exist in an important lineage and dialogue with the work of groundbreaking gay artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe and David Wojnarowicz, forms the centre of this dramatic feature film. Based on rediscovered transcripts from an unused interview by Linda Rosenkrantz, in which she asked Hujar to narrate the events of the previous day in minute detail, the film is an illustration of the life of the creative mind, the quotidian and the imaginative at once, fully and lovingly inhabited by its two brilliant actors (Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall).
RADFF26 Prickly Mountain and My Design/Build Life
(E)
In the late '60s and '70s, a group of architects landed in Vermont with big ideas and a simple plan: to stop just designing buildings and start making them. Drawing from Bauhaus ideals but rejecting the rigidity of academia, they built by hand, embraced mistakes, and turned architecture into a wild, creative experiment. Director Allie Rood grew up in the middle of it all, playing in half-finished houses. Years later, she picks up a camera to trace the movement's history, only to find herself building a house of her own.
The Time Traveller's Guide To Hamilton Gardens
(G)
How did a city rubbish dump transform into a collection of gardens that is now a major visitor attraction? The story of how Hamilton Gardens became a unique museum of humanity, showcasing gardens from ancient Egypt to the surreal future, is told on screen. A Museum of Humanity: The Time Traveller's Guide to Hamilton Gardens documentary explores this stunning achievement.
The Drama
(R16)
A happily engaged couple is put to the test when an unexpected turn sends their wedding week off the rails.
Top Gun 40th Anniversary
(PG)
As students at the United States Navy's elite fighter weapons school compete to be best in the class, one daring young pilot learns a few things from a civilian instructor that are not taught in the classroom.
RADFF26 The Space Architect + Rimurapa by Neil Pardington + Paparahi: 50th Anniversary Victoria University School of Architecture & Innovative Design
(E)
Space architect Constance Adams was a renegade in her field, solving complex problems in new ways, driven by the question: What do humans need? Preceded by RIMURAPA BY NEIL PARDINGTON (12 mins), a short film about local artist, Neil Pardington who is creating graphic works from bull kelp. Preceded by PAPARAHI: 50TH ANNIVERSARY VICTORIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE & INNOVATIVE DESIGN (15 mins), a short film profiling key female architects; alumni of Victoria University of Wellington.
RADFF26 Ugo La Pietra - Disequilibrating System
(E)
This documentary explores the radical vision of Ugo La Pietra, a key figure in art, design and architecture over the last 60 years. The documentary reconstructs the journey of an author who used every available medium to develop his "disequilibrating system": a way of creating against the system and stereotypes, aimed at evolving the individual through new forms of perception. Architect, artist and designer, La Pietra is a unique case.
RADFF26 Stardust: The Story of Love and Architecture
(E)
This documentary tells the story of visionary architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. It is a journey across continents and decades, into the uncompromising world of architecture and into a love story and creative partnership. For 50 years, Venturi and Scott Brown shared a life marked by deep tenderness, sharp wit, and intellectual joy. Together, they also ignited a quiet revolution in architecture, challenging the rigid dogmas of modernism by embracing complexity, symbolism, and the lessons of the everyday landscape.
RADFF26 The New Museum
(E)
For over six years, filmmaker Birgitte Sigmundstad followed the creation of Norway's New National Museum, a monumental project that merged four institutions under one vast, temple-like roof designed by Kleihues + Schuwerk. This rich, observational documentary offers an unvarnished look at the tensions that define an undertaking like this: curatorial debates, the logistical challenges of moving and storing vast collections, aesthetic and technical decisions, time and budget pressures, political backlash and evolving public expectations.
RADFF26 Building on the Edge
(E)
Over the course of two years, a group of graduate students and their professor embarked on a journey to design and construct a new cutting-edge research station for a group of scientists studying penguins and seals in one of the harshest environments on the planet, Antarctica. Transporting the material to the remote island also proves to be a daunting task as they must cross one of the most dangerous bodies of water, the Drake Passage. The extreme environments and abundance of wildlife set up the conditions for the adventure of a lifetime for the group.
RADFF26 Googie
(E)
Emerging in mid-20th century Los Angeles, Googie transformed coffee shops, bowling alleys, banks, churches and car washes into futuristic icons, influenced by visionary architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright and John Lautner, and propelled into the commercial mainstream by firms like Armet & Davis. Though many landmarks have been lost, a growing preservation movement now recognises Googie as a vital and distinctly American expression of modern design, a legacy this film celebrates through the voices of leading historians and cultural commentators.
RADFF26 The Harvard 5: A Story of Love, Architecture, and a Design Revolution + The Temple of Kinetic Resonance
(E)
This documentary tells the story of five architects—Philip Johnson, John Johansen, Landis Gores, Eliot Noyes, and Marcel Breuer—visionaries who ignited a modern design revolution with Bauhaus inspired designs. Preceded by THE TEMPLE OF KINETIC RESONANCE (17 mins), a short film exploring the creation of a joint vision combining the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and Len Lye Foundation in a single building in New Plymouth.
RADFF26 Adnan being and time
(E)
This expressionistic portrait of the great Etel Adnan (b. Beirut, 1925) documents the artist and poet over the last five years of her life. Adnan is working without ego, asking, what does it mean to be alive, to live through catastrophe, to experience time? Close to Adnan in her daily life, in her studio, in her works, and in the natural world essential to her aesthetic and philosophic understanding, the film's form creates an experience of Adnan's radical quality of attention.
RADFF26 Leonora in the Morning Light
(M)
This dramatic feature film centres on the early 1930s and painter Leonora Carrington, who was a rebel against social expectations, joining the surrealist movement and its iconic figures like André Breton and Salvador Dalí in Paris. A whirlwind love affair with artist Max Ernst confronts her with her inner demons. During the war, Leonora flees to Mexico and finally empowers herself. Today Leonora Carrington is one of the highest-selling female painters worldwide, alongside Frida Kahlo and Georgia O'Keeffe.
RADFF26 Artacho Jurado, Symphony of an Architect
(E)
This bold and courageous architect, Artacho Jurado, responsible for several iconic buildings in São Paulo, had three main passions: the city, architecture and classical music. This documentary investigates the man who freely mixed colours, shapes and textures, challenging the modernism that prevailed at the time, all set alongside the sounds of an expressive symphony.
RADFF26 Living Together: The Story of De Warren
(E)
Living Together: The Story of De Warren is a documentary about the establishment of Housing Cooperative De Warren. The film begins with KONIJN, a group of friends who organise parties and festivals. After founding a permaculture farm in Portugal, the idea of living together arises and the concept of De Warren is born. The project is ambitious, being the first of its kind in the Netherlands, and none of the young housing pioneers have ever built a house.
Tenor: My Name Is Pati
(PG)
The remarkable story of charismatic Samoan opera star Pene Pati who sang his way from humble origins in Samoa onto the world's greatest opera stages.
Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk
(M)
Sepideh Farsi’s documentary follows photojournalist Fatma Hassouna over the course of a year as she experiences one loss after another while trying to survive in Gaza.
The President's Cake
(M)
In 1990s Iraq, 9-year-old Lamia must bake Saddam Hussein's birthday cake. She scrambles to find ingredients for this compulsory task while facing potential punishment if she fails.
Exit 8
(M)
A man trapped in a endless sterile subway passageway sets out to find Exit 8. The rules of his quest are simple: do not overlook anything out of the ordinary.
Obsession
(R16)
After breaking the mysterious "One Wish Willow" to win his crush's heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
