Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif in Lawrence of Arabia. Photo / Supplied
The annual autumn World Cinema Showcase - a minor film festival run by the organisers of the main New Zealand International Film Festival - is no more.
Instead it's effectively being replaced by one-off screenings at The Civic in Auckland as well as the Academy and Rialto cinemas.
On the
weekend of April 20-21, the Civic will host a screenings of four films. They include a 50th anniversary digital restoration of the classic Lawrence of Arabia; the 1955 Marlon Brando-Frank Sinatra musical Guys and Dolls; the Oscar-nominated film of Thor Heyerdahl's Pacific raft voyage Kon-Tiki and The ABCs of Death in which local producer Ant Timpson has commissioned an international bunch of movie mavericks to create an alphabetical list of short but savage film fatalities.
"We saw that the original purpose of the showcase was becoming harder to articulate to an audience confronted by a proliferation of smaller, more clearly defined festivals," says NZIFF director Bill Gosden.
"The NZIFF in July is our flagship event. Rather than continue with a second festival, our newly styled NZIFF autumn events seem a more easily understood and seamless extension to the winter extravaganza."
