The world’s first nationally curated film festival will travel to 15 New Zealand cities and towns, superseding the various regional events, in the new guise of the New Zealand International Film Festival.

“With this evolution of the Festival name we celebrate that the Festival is a national event taking place throughout New Zealand. As far as we know ours is the only national film festival of its kind in the world – one in which a centrally curated programme is delivered in different forms to different regions within the one country,” says Festival Director Bill Gosden.

The Festival which runs in Wellington from July 17 will travel around the country finishing in Whangarei in November. Until now each region has been promoted with the region’s name despite sharing a common programme and artwork since 2002. The Festival has grown nationally since the merging in 1984 of the Auckland International Film Festival (founded in 1969) and the Wellington Film Festival (1972).

This year’s logo and poster artwork, developed by Wellington design company Ocean Design, reflects the theme of a travelling event. “Ocean have done an outstanding job refreshing the logo with the Festival taking the form of a luxury express train moving through a distinctively Kiwi townscape. Cinema has that ability to transport us to other places and times and this year’s logo is all about trains, boats and planes.” says Gosden.

A number of films have already been announced for the 2009 programme, including NZ feature The Strength of Water, Soderbergh’s Che, Oscar winner Departures and the German film, The Baader Meinhof Complex. Further updates will be made on the Festival website www.nzff.co.nz until the full programmes are announced for each city from mid-June.

In 2009 the NZIFF will be held in Wellington, Auckland, Dunedin, Christchurch, Palmerston North, Napier, Tauranga, Hamilton, New Plymouth, Nelson, Greymouth, Masterton, Levin, Gisborne and Whangarei. The Festival is operated by the New Zealand Film Festival Trust, a charitable trust established in 1996.

Andrew L. Urban
Editor & Publisher
www.urbancinefile.com.au