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.

With unprecedented access to the official archives and intimate recollections from the band, both current and past, Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition invites fans to experience one of the most iconic journeys in music history. Spanning five decades, this electrifying documentary charts the band's rise from the pubs of East London to the world's biggest stadiums. Featuring exclusive interviews with band members and contributors such as Javier Bardem, Lars Ulrich and Chuck D, as well as all- new animated sequences of the band's legendary mascot, Eddie, the film offers a rare and intimate look at Iron Maiden's uncompromising vision and unwavering connection with their truly global army of fans.

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 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).

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.

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 House of Cini Boeri tells the story of the intense life and brilliant work of architect and designer Cini Boeri, through the places she lived, the testimonies of those who knew her well, and the works she created. The house of Cini Boeri is the home of a courageous protagonist of the 20th century—a pioneer, both in her choices and her designs, of a new way of living that helped revolutionise the role of women in the family, in work, and in society. It's the home of a strong-willed, charismatic matriarch of a large family that lovingly and devotedly preserves her memory.

Through his architecture, this documentary tells the story of Sep Ruf, both as a person and as an architect—a remarkable personality who continues to have an impact today. Ruf's buildings are not only of outstanding quality but also remain relevant and contemporary. His stylish, elegant, open, and transparent architecture is, in the best sense, a continuation of Bauhaus modernism, which he interpreted in his own way, always with a deep respect for tradition.

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.

Truus Schröder's love for Gerrit Rietveld led to the design of the iconic Rietveld Schröderhuis in 1924. After her death, the house was thoroughly restored, even though Rietveld was of the opinion that his houses should be torn down after 50 years. Screens with CURATING MODERNISM (30 mins), Curating Modernism looks at 20th century modern architecture in the United States and how it offers powerful opportunities for restoration, sensitive updates, and adaptive reuse so modernist structures can remain active participants in everyday life rather than static artefacts.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This documentary tells the story of a major urban renewal and transformation project, starting from the Lavazza headquarters in Turin and engaging with the people who live there, the Aurora district and the city of Turin. Preceded by NGĀ MOKOPUNA: THE LIVING PĀ AT VICTORIA UNIVERSITY (15 mins), a short film showcasing Ngā Mokopuna and interviews with architects, a sustainability expert, the head of Māori Studies at the Victoria University of Wellington and sustainable building suppliers.

Tracing Light explores the most fascinating of natural phenomena—light. The film brings together leading physicists and artists from Scotland, England and Germany on a quest to understand and animate light. Light is difficult to describe. Tracing Light does not seek to explain, but to evoke. Through its visuals and encounters between artists and scientists, the film opens a contemplative space—one where wonder and sensuality quietly unfold.

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.

The uniqueness of the architecture of the Brazilian northeastern hinterland is at the heart of the work of the photographer Anna Mariani (1935-2022). Anna Mariani Photographic Notes retraces the dirt roads the artist followed between the '70s and the '90s, when she published her most famous works and helped an entire country rediscover the richness of the façades of popular houses as a phenomenon of visual perception and cultural identity.

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.

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.

Construction of the long-awaited new pavilion inside the Hilversum botanical gardens in the Netherlands begins. With the occasional help of the gardener and under the watchful eyes of the local residents, the architects—acting as builders—donned overalls and work shoes and navigated the year-long process. Join them for a walk through the garden, observing the construction in harmony with the unhurried rhythms of nature.

Bruno Morassutti was a cultured and intellectually rigorous, yet understated figure in post-war Italian architecture. A former student of Giuseppe Samonà and Carlo Scarpa, Morassutti brought a deeply cosmopolitan sensibility to his work. His early travels across the USA, documenting the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, shaped his lifelong interest in structural experimentation and prefabrication. Back in Italy, he worked with Angelo Mangiarotti, before starting his own studio.

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.

When memory begins to fade, love is put to the test. Set in a run-down Wellington villa in 2003, Caterpillar follows three women living separate lives under one leaky roof. Sixteen-year-old Cassie is all bravado and vulnerability, drifting into risky territory as she searches for belonging. Her mother Maxine, 52, is a formidable single parent and filmmaker on the brink of a long-awaited breakthrough, finally offered a greenlight—if she can land a star. Holding everything together is Huia, Cassie’s grandmother, 80, whose life has been defined by quiet service to family and a private obsession with raising monarch caterpillars, dreaming of one day witnessing the legendary butterfly migration in Mexico.

How did a city rubbish dump transform into a collection of gardens that is now a major visitor attraction? Masterminded by designer Peter Sergel and developed with council, community support, and sponsorship, Hamilton Gardens is now recognised as one of the great gardens of the world. The viewer can travel backwards and forwards in time — moving from 16th century England, back to Song Dynasty China, Ancient Egypt, and the Italian Renaissance, and forward to the future, from sustainable to surreal.