Strong Dutch Presence At New Zealand IFF
The films in the selection are divided in several strands and collections.
The Premieres strand includes Instinct, director Halina Reijn's debut feature film which world premiered at Locarno where it received the Variety Piazza Grande Award and also a Special Mention from the jury of the Best First Feature Film Award.
Dutch feature film Mi Vida by Norbert ter Hall and Sophie Dros' documentary King of the Cruise are presented in the Widescreen programme strand.
The largest part of the films from the Netherlands at the New Zealand Festival can be found in the Spotlight section: debut feature Paradise Drifters by Mees Peijnenburg, Drama Girl by Vincent Boy Kars, Janis Rafa's first feature Kalaza Azar by Janis Rafa and Sandra Beerends's documentary They Call Me Babu. The latter is part of the European Film Promotion's Europe! Voices of Women in Film programme, presented in association with Sydney Film Festival.
Three Dutch minority co-productions have also been selected for Spotlight: Tenchby Belgian filmmaker Patrice Toye (Dutch co-producer: KeyFilm), Sick, Sick, Sick by Alice Furtado (Dutch co-producer: BALDR Film) and State Funeralby Sergei Loznitsa (produced by Netherlands based Atoms & Void).
The Square Eyes programme, with especially curated films for children and youth, presents Steven Wouterloods My Extraordinary Summer with Tess, which has been traveling around the world and sweeping awards since its world premiere in 2019 Berlinale Generation competition. My Extraordinary Summer with Tess will be made available to the New Zealand Festival audience online and in cinemas. Also part of Square Eyes is the animated short film Emily by Marlies van der Wel.
The 52nd New Zealand International Film Festival takes place 24 July - 3 August.
All above mentioned films have been supported by the Netherlands Film Fund.
For more information:www.nziff.co.nz
Source: Eye International