After weeks of tantalising reveals the New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) has finally announced its full lineup. And there's a lot packed in for film lovers to celebrate and agonise over.
In the lineup are 30 movies direct from the renowned Cannes Film Festival, including the prestigious Palme d'Or winner Shoplifters, Jury Prize winner Caphernaum and Best Screenplay winners (tied) 3 Faces and Happy As Lazzaro.
Documentary lovers are also well catered for with films about Sri Lankan musician M.I.A (Matangi/Maya/M.I.A), the pioneering Māori filmmaker Merata Mita (Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen), and New Zealand's competitive medieval combat scene (Bludgeon) amongst others.
Also on the lineup is the Sundance Grand Jury Winner The Miseducation of Cameron Post, a drama starring Chloe Grace Moretz as a queer teen sent to a gay conversion camp, the Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams led romantic drama Disobedience and cult pick An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn, which stars Aubrey Plaza and Jemaine Clement.
Another treat is Buster Keaton's comedy classic The General, which will have its soundtrack performed by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.
Those whose tastes err to the unusual will find plenty to froth over in the Incredibly Strange films, including The Field Guide to Evil, an omnibus of eight creepy, spine tingling folk tales and the Argentinian paranormal shocker Terrified.
The festival opens Thursday, July 19, as the Herald's TimeOut Entertainment presents the acclaimed Birds of Passage, a film about the place of Columbia's indigenous Wayuu in the 1970s drug trade.
Tickets go on sale 9am Friday through Ticketmaster and in person at the Civic and Aotea Center box offices.
To peruse the full lineup head to the NZIFF website.