Impressionistic drama from filmmaking master Terrence Malick (Badlands, The Thin Red Line), starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. Palme d'Or (Best Film) winner at Cannes Film Festival 2011.

Iconoclastic Danish director Lars von Trier follows up his controversial Antichrist with this sci-fi disaster drama, starring Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kiefer Sutherland.

A "pick-a-path romance" set in NYC from Florian Habicht (Kaikohe Demolition, Woodenhead), that sees him enlisting the help and advice of psychics, his father and random New Yorkers as he attempts to track down Masha, a girl he glimpses one day on the subway, who unknowingly has become his muse.

The seminal 1976 Scorsese/De Niro flick, on its 35th birthday, in a brand new 35mm film print restoration.

Based on a classic of British children’s fantasy, Mary Norton’s 1952 novel The Borrowers, this animated feature is the latest source of delight from the estimable Studio Ghibli (Ponyo, Spirited Away). Follows the friendship between a young boy recuperating at his elderly aunt’s house in the country, and Arrietty, a girl 10cm tall who lives under the floorboards with her similar sized family.

A shoeshiner working on the streets sees an illegal immigrant boy escaping from the police and sets out to help him from a tough cop and the attentions of a mean-spirited local. This French comedy from director Aki Kaurismäki’s was the winner of the International Critics Prize at Cannes 2011.

Freshly restored print of the 1990 documentary, itself made of footage filmed in 1937, about the building of 7 waka taua for the 1940 centennial commemorations at Waitangi. The film's screening is an acknowledgement of the late Merata Mita, Mana Waka's director, and her contribution to New Zealand’s film heritage.

New, restored print of Murnau's 1922 Nosferatu, the original vampire film. Screens accompanied by a live performance from the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra who will be playing Timothy Brock's Symphony of Horrors, a "compelling and dramatic score for the German silent classic".

French drama about a wild 11-year-old boy rebounding between the care of a kind, single woman and a streetwise older boy. Grand Prix winner at Cannes 2011. "Kindness couched in unblinking social realism is an intrinsic part of how these supremely gifted filmmakers view the world." -Hollywood Reporter.

Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) takes on the billion dollar business of product placement in Hollywood.

Behind the scenes of the world’s most famous newspaper and how it’s coping with the new media industry.

Doco on the under-representation of women in the media. Featuring interviews with Katie Couric, Condoleezza Rice, Rosario Dawson...

Doco about two roomates who record the hilarious arguments of their neighbours which go on to be a viral hit long before YouTube. "One of the more insightful and entertaining docs to hit screens this year" -Twitch.

From documentary-master Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, The Fog of War), about Joyce McKinner – a former Miss Wyoming – and her headline-grabbing exploits that ignited tabloids in the ’70s.

Doco on Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu using unknown official Communist-era footage from Romanian National Television and Film Archives. "Chillingly reveals the manner in which a dictator constructs, and comes to believe in, his own cult of personality." -SF International Film Festival.

Doco on America's Black Power movement, made from newly discovered 16mm footage shot between 1968 and 1975, that includes interviews with key players. "A time capsule of a turbulent era" -Time Out NY.

From Kelly Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy), an “alt-Western” set in 1845 with Michelle Williams, Paul Dano and Shirley Henderson. Read our Q&A with Henderson at our Festival Blog.

Michael Winterbottom’s (24 Hour Party People) culinary-road-tripping comedy-drama with two of the funniest men in the world: Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.

"A secular middle-class family is accused of a crime by an impoverished religious one in a gripping thriller that provides a layered and exceptionally revealing picture of life in Iran." -NZIFF. Winner of Best Film, Actor and Actress at Berlin Film Festival 2011.

Adaptation of Chekhov's 1891 novella. "The most successful literary adaptation I’ve seen since 2006's Lady Chatterley." -Village Voice.

Domestic drama from Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev (The Return) that follows a newly remarried housewife caught between the conflicting worlds of her new husband's wealthy family and the modesty of her own background, characterised by her wastrel son. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes 2011.

Sequel to Elite Squad and Brazil's all time biggest box office hit. A realistic thriller depicting Rio's special military police unit, a crack squad assembled to confront the drug lords that run rampant through the city's notorious slums. "A nail-biting standalone thriller." -Sydney Film Festival.

The surprise winner of Best Screenplay at Cannes earlier this year has an equally surprising premise; the intense, professional rivalry between a pair of professors who also happen to be father and son. Time Magazine regaled this darkly comic Israeli film as "one of the festival's glories".

Part one of the live-action adaptation of Japan's bizarre cult manga and anime series of the same name sets up its mysterious premise and delivers plenty of mind-bending sci-fi action. A group of recently deceased people puzzlingly find themselves trapped inside an apartment in Tokyo.

The conclusion of the above Gantz. Sees a group of recently deceased people offered a second chance at life if they can survive in battle against a succession of increasingly dangerous aliens.

French-Canadian drama, adapted from Wajdi Mouawad's acclaimed play and nominated for Best Foreign Langauge Film at the 2011 Academy Awards.

John C. Reilly stars as vice-principal in this outsider-comedy about a tubby 15-year-old struggling through high-school life. "Humanistic without being moralistic, very funny." -Village Voice.

A "meticulously staged and richly loaded drama that chronicles the earthly transit and material transmutation of an old man, a young goat, a tree and a batch of charcoal". New York Times reckons you'll be left grasping at "the epic scope and lyrical depth of what you have seen, which is more or less all of creation".

Chow Yun-Fat stars in this violent action-comedy set in China's warring 1920s about a bandit who arrives at a remote town posing as its new mayor. China's biggest box-office success to date.

This sprawling, epically scoped, labyrinthine novel adaptation from acclaimed Chilean director Raul Ruiz follows a jealous countess, a wealthy businessman, and a young orphaned boy across Portugal, France, Italy and Brazil. "A masterpiece... shot in gorgeous colours and constantly surprising.” -Sight & Sound.

French comedy about two rival customs officers, one Belgian and the other French, who can't stand each other but are forced together when they learn of the future closure of their small customs post situated between Corquain in France and Koorkin in Belgium.

Korean love-triangle comedy that splits its playful story of the romantic entaglement between two film students and their film school professor into several parts that shift backwards and forwards through time and in between fantasy and reality to tell its "wry, witty" tale.

French action flick about an off duty nurse who saves the life of a thief. The thief's henchmen kidnap his pregnant wife and demand he smuggle their boss out of the hospital or else... "One hell of an adrenalin rush." -Twitch.

French rom-com set in a chocolate factory that chornicles the awkward and masked romance between two abnormally shy people who both suffer from hyper-emotionalism but have found vastly different ways of concealing their condition.

Nominated for the Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival, Japanese romance based on the Haruki Murakami novel. "A very sensual, sexy movie that virtually gorges on its own erotic melancholy." -The Guardian.

Restored print of Fritz Lang’s undeniable 1927 classic: the legendary art deco futuro-fable of industrialist excess, proletarian rebellion, and robot romance. Includes 25 minutes of rediscovered footage.

Russian drama about a man who wishes to cremate his recently passed wife in the traditional custom of his land. Enlisting the help of a close friend the two men set off on a thousand mile journey to the river shore.

Winner of the Best Director gong at Berlin Film Fesitval 2011, this drama follows a German doctor stuck in Cameroon for reasons he can’t wholly explain."Roams through the incongruous terrain of contemporary Africa like a restless insomniac with eyes wide open" -Sydney Film Festival.

This epic, action packed, huge budget, Japanese sci-fi adventure is firmly entrenched in the Star Wars tradition of grand space battles, weird looking aliens and a young hero, plucked from obscurity and sent to save the universe...

Korean drama, shot in black and white, about a retired filmmaker who returns to Seoul and decides to meet up with old friends and old flames. Upon awaking he finds himself playing out the events of the previous day over and over...

The true story of an 84 year-old Kenyan villager and civil war veteran who fights for his right to go to school for the first time, to get the education he could never afford.

French coming-of-age drama about three brothers in their mid-teens who get dropped off at their grandfather's deserted country house and are left to fend for themselves over the summer. "The performances of the boys are unselfconscious, endearing and completely believable." -Screendaily.

French holocaust drama that highlights the involvement the country had with the Nazi regime during its occupation. "Hailed as an important step in France’s acknowledgment of its complicity in the crimes of the Occupation.” -The Guardian.

Comedy-drama in which a young man is rocked by two announcements from his elderly father: that he has terminal cancer, and that he has a young male lover. Stars Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer and Mélanie Laurent. From the director of Thumbsucker.

"Stunningly pristine" print of Federico Fellini's 1960 masterpiece that both condemns and glamourises the emerging "modern decadence" of its era.

Italian comedy from 59-year-old writer/director/star Gianni Di Gregorio about a man and his relationship with his overbearingly gregarious mother. "Provides an effervescent, Old-World antidote to the current Italian Prime Minister’s views of women’s place in the nation’s life." -NZIFF.

Contemporary retelling of the French theater classic L’Illusion comique sees the original faithfully transposed to the comings and goings at a luxurious modern day hotel. "French acting at its very best, achieving a perfect fusion between screen and stage." -Screendaily.

Italian/German drama based on the novel by Paolo Giordano. Nomainted for the Golden Lion at Venice. "Troubling, complex and compelling... a wonderful portrait of differences." —Toronto Film Festival.

A breezy French comedy centering on an uptight couple living in a swanky Parisian apartment in 1962, blissfully unaware that upstairs the building's servants quarters is overflowing with illlegal immigrants, all of whom are hot-blooded Spanish country girls...

The long unavailable, 1960 film from legendary director Elia Kazan (On The Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire). "One of the greatest works of one of America’s greatest directors." -Film Forum.

A mercilessly deadpan comedy from China that charts the endless boredom of the last day of winter school holidays in a depopulated industrial settlement in remote Inner Mongolia. Described as "South Park in slow motion", it won the Golden Leopard (Best Film), at the Locarno Film Festival 2010.

With the billing "Jane Campion Presents...", this Australian drama from Julia Leigh - a protege of Campion - is described as an "unsettling erotic fable". Nominated for Palme d'Or at Cannes 2011. Stars Sucker Punch's Emily Browning.

This Brit coming-of-age comedy looks brilliant: the directorial debut from the bespectacled co-star of The IT Crowd, Richard Ayoade, executive-produced by Ben Stiller, and featuring a score by Arctic Monkey’s frontman, Alex Turner.

"Charmingly droll" comedy about a cinephile who, when threatened with the closure of the cinema he’s run for 25 years, has to awkwardly negotiate the trials and tribulations of real life using every trick he’s ever learnt from the movies.

Awkwardly exploring themes of sex and death this Greek black dramedy, from the producer Dogtooth, sees a withdrawn, naïve 23-year-old attempting to explore her sexuality while simultaneously preparing herself for the death of her father to a long-term illness. Star Ariane Labed won Best Actress at Venice Film Festiva 2010.

When Ellen’s long-term boyfriend comes clean about an equally long-term affair she begins a spiraling journey of personal discovery that sees her deliberately destroying the foundations of her life and falling in with a group of militant animal rights activists. "Proof that [director] Pia Marais is among Europe’s most important working filmmakers" -Sight & Sound.

Divisive South African drama about a married man who develops an unhealthy obsession for a male friend of his son and the explosive manner in which his repression and self-loathing manifests. "The most difficult cinematic experience I had at Cannes.” -Slant Magazine.

A sober drama about a 19-year-old who after being released from prison struggles to deal with both his own guilt and his ability to connect to the outside world. "Distinguished by its restraint, controlled visual style and a matter-of-fact observational approach." -Hollywood Reporter.

Norweigian sex romp that won the Grand Jury Award (World Cinema Drama) at Sundance 2011. Centers on the consequential misbehavings of two married couples and the politically incorrect games of their children.

French-Canadian romance about three hipsters ensnared in a love triangle. From 21-year-old filmmaker Xavier Dolan (I Killed My Mother). A winner and sensation at Cannes 2010.

Performance artist, writer, director and actor Miranda July's follow up to 2005's Me, You and Everyone We Know. Read our Q&A with July at our Festival Blog.

The Festival's regular collection of Kiwi-made short films.

This delicate road movie depicting the touching encounter between a long-distance truck driver and the woman and child he takes as passengers won the Caméra d’Or for Best First Film at Cannes this year.

French coming-of-age drama about a fourteen year old girl discovering sexuality everywhere she looks, including the church she attends with her mother. "A contemplative, atmospheric drama with a streak of rebellious black humour." -London Film Festival.

This "psychodrama" took away the Directing Award for first time writer/director Sean Durkin at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Elizabeth Olsen (sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley) stars as a fragile young woman who escapes a Manson-like cult before seeking refuge at the home of her estranged sister. The Hollywood Reporter described the film's mood as one of "quiet dread, kicking up several visceral notches in the occasional stunning explosion of violence or verbal altercation".

Rom-com set in sun-soaked Buenos Aires about two people fated to be together but whose individual paths look increasingly likely not to ever cross. "Immensely likable." -Variety.

A "keen observational thriller" from Austrian director Markus Schleinzera (long-time associate of Michael Haneke) about a non-descript middle-aged man who kidnaps a young boy and then keeps him prisoner in his house. Loosely based on the events of the famous Natascha Kampusch case, the Austrian girl kidnapped at age 10 and held hostage in a basement for over eight years.

Russian documentarian Sergei Loznitsa makes his feature debut with this spiralling, interconnected, series of dark tales that explore the deepest recesses of Mother Russia. Based on true stories and described as a "Kafkaesque horror" that takes you on a "nightmare journey into a Russian heart of darkness".

Subversive boundary pushing Swedish coming-age-of drama about two 14-year-old girls immersed in the world of competitive equestrian vaulting. Best Film at the Tribeca Film Festival 2011.

Irish comedy about two policemen who must join forces to take on an international drug-smuggling gang – one, an unorthodox Irish policeman (Brendan Gleeson) and the other, a straitlaced FBI agent (Don Cheadle).

Taboo-crushing drama, set in contemporary Iran, following two 16-year-old girls as they delve into a heady world of sex, drugs and underground nightclubs. Said to "expose the hidden world of Iranian youth culture". Winner of the Audience Award (Drama) at Sundance 2011.

Australian crime-drama about serial killer John Bunting. "Debut director Kurzel has brilliantly recreated scenes from Australia’s most notorious killing/torture spree." -Screendaily.

"Contemporary anxieties about terrorism, disease, climate change and economic collapse as portents of the end of days are brilliantly channelled into Jeff Nichols’ acclaimed psychological thriller" -NZIFF. Stars Michael Shannon (Broadwalk Empire).

Ten shorts (six international and four local films) commissioned to bring visual artists’ work into cinemas in subversive and playful ways.

Centered around the Albanian concept of 'blood feud' and the lengths a family must go to to avoid repaying a blood debt that has been placed on their son. Winner of Best Screenplay at the Berlin Film Festival 2011.

A gritty Korean man-on-the-run thriller packed with action, gushing blood and a "spectacularly destructive car chase".

"Award-winning indie discovery is fair warning that the 24-year-old Dunham – who also stars in a role modeled so closely on her life that she shot the film in her family’s stark, artsy loft in lower Manhattan – is a big talent to be reckoned with, a storyteller of gigantic charm and subtlety, and a filmmaker of exciting feminine originality." -EW.

French comedy film about a ten-year-old girl who pretends to be a boy in order to play soccer with the other kids. "Explores a child’s bold assumption of gender identity with gentle realism and a light touch."

Bleak British film about a violent, cynical drinker who finds himself attracted to a kindly christian charity shop worker. His advances are rejected but events transpire that show perhaps she isn't quite as saintly as first imagined... Winner of the Directing Award (World Cinema Dramatic) at Sundance Film Festival 2011.

Described by The Hollywood Reporter as "vicious, sexy and throbbingly realistic", this action/crime/drama from the Democratic Republic of Congo chronicles the misadventures of an oil bandit and his sidekick as they run afoul of everyone from the police through to the area's local crime boss.

Brit drama about a fellow who, after partying with his straight mates, heads out to a gay club. Just before closing time he picks up Glen but what's expected to be just a one-night stand becomes something else... Winner of the Audience Award (Emerging Visions) at the SXSW Film Festival 2011.

Cult Japanese director Takeshi Miike (Audition) delivers a period samurai epic, based on true events. A group of assassins come together to kill a sadistic lord...

Action-splatter film about a homeless man who becomes a violent, shotgun-wielding vigilante upon entering a crime-ridden city. Like Machete, this began its life as a fake trailer in Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodiguez's double feature, Grindhouse.

Japanese slasher-thriller from cult director Sono Sion about a tropical fish store owner who befriends an affable gent who is also in the tropical fish selling business. But behind the friendly smile of this new pal lies a horrific and deadly secret. This film is inspired by true events known in Japan as the "Saitama serial murders of dog lovers".

Violent, Korean thriller about a secret agent who pits himself against a sick serial killer after his pregnant fiancee is brutally murdered. From the director of The Good, The Bad, The Weird.

UK horror-thriller about two war buddies who accept some dodgy mercenary work to garner some extra cash. But when one of the missions throws up some unexpected depravity the pair go from work-for-hire types to moral avengers in a blood soaked second.

A decade spanning chronicle of the violent, bloody rivalry between two families in Ireland, the Quinn McDonagh's and the Joyce's, whose reasons for beating each other senseless in ongoing, ritualistic, bare knuckle boxing fights seems to have been lost in the mists of time.

Slow burning, old school, horror set in a creepy soon-to-close inn. Film.com said the movie "builds tension steadily and gradually, eventually delivering some good fun-house terror". Stars Sara Paxton (Shark Night 3D).

Not a film for those who suffer from a fear of clowns. Splatter drama about the love triangle between a "sad" clown, a "happy" clown and happy's acrobat wife. The Venice Film Festival's Tarantino-headed jury gave The Last Circus Best Screenplay and Best Director awards in 2010.

Korea's highest grossing film of 2010 is a "wildly entertaining and terrifically exciting" action thriller about a mysterious stranger who offers help to a young girl after her drugged up, stripper mum angers the local gangsters.

Incredibly Stranger organiser Ant Timpson calls this the "feel bad comedy of the year", and warns that it contains scenes that may be upsetting to audience members. It's all about an odd suburban man who finds a near-naked feral woman in the woods and decides to 'civilise' her.

The Blair Witch Project meets Where the Wild Things Are in this 'found footage' Norwegian horror. And what does the footage reveal? Three missing college kids who were making a documentary about illegal bear hunters, only to come across something much larger, hairier and uglier.

Werner Herzog’s (Grizzly Man, Aguirre Wrath of God) new 3D documentary on the Cave of Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc in Southern France – limestone caves that contain 30,000 year-old paintings, first discovered in 1994.

Winner of the Audience Award at Sundance 2011 (for US Documentary), about American Buck Braannaman - from his abusive childhood to his life as a successful horse-whisperer.

Kiwi Olympian rower Rob Hamill goes to Cambodia to retrace the events that saw his brother, Kerry, caught, tortured and murdered by the Khmer Rouge in 1978. From documentarian Annie Goldson (An Island Calling).

This documentary rolls up and hits the road with the Gran Circo Mexico, a circus that has travelled around Mexico for generations, as it shows what life amongst the contortionists, stunt riders, clowns and animal trainers is really like, for both the performers and their audience.

Documentary on the romance novels of Mills and Boon and, in particular, five people obsessed with them. "Makes it affectingly clear that for some readers there’s fortification in recognising – even repeatedly – that the perfect union with the perfect man occurs only in very affordable paperbacks." -NZIFF.

Spellbound goes to Ireland in this documentary about the competitive Irish folk dancing scene and the children who compete within. "Celebrates hard-work and dedication as much as grace and style." -Screendaily.

Local documentary on the devastating effects the Christchurch earthquake has had on the city, told through the viewpoint of a Korean couple who immigrated there to open two now destroyed restaurants. With startling footage of a ruined city the film looks at not just the obvious material loss but also examines the spiritual and physiological toll the earthquake has wrought on those who live there.

A documentary 20 years in the making that charts the problematic relationship between a Tibetan Buddhist master and his Italian born son.

Wim Wenders’ tribute to the late famed choreographer-dancer Pina Bausch eschews most archival footage to instead revel in the interpretations of her work being performed now. Wenders made the unusual choice to film his dance-documentary in 3D, which The Telegraph says is the first film made that "suggest['s] the real artistic possibilities of 3D".

Indian documentary about Sampat Pal Devi, the firey leader of North India's "Pink Gang", a formidable group of women who crusade against child marriages, dowry deaths and the abuse of caste women.

The winner of top honours at both Sundance 2011 and the Amsterdam Documentary Festival 2010 this marvellous documentary encapsulates an amazing amount of what shapes the world today by observing the inter-generational struggles of one Indonesian family.

Documentary about a chimp named Nim Chimpsky - put into a Manhattan family home in 1973 by a behavrioural pschologist who set about testing Noam Chomsky's thesis that language is peculiar to humans. From the director of Man on Wire.

Documentary that celebrates the pioneers and most successful practitioners of capitalism. Includes interviews with Apple's Steve Jobs and the founders of Intel, Atari and more. "This might be the rarest bird in the documentary world: a genuine love story about capitalism." -NY Times.

Doco about teenagers exiled from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. "What could have been a piece of oddball, marginal Americana... instead becomes a moving, thrilling yarn of heartland life and masculinity." -salon.com

Doco about Levon Helm, drummer and singer of The Band, the massively influential 60s/70s blues-rock group. "A captivating look at a musician hanging onto his art for dear life" -Hollywood Reporter.

Doco on A Tribe Called Quest, one of the most influential hip hop groups of all time, that follows their 2008 reunion tour and shows the fractious relationship between the two leading members Phife Dawg and Q-Tip.

A cool, breezy, romantic drama that revolves around the on-off-possibly on again relationship between a jazz trumpet virtuoso and a waitress/performer. Shot in black and white and casually meshing aspects of a Hollywood musical, French New Wave, Boston bohemia and urban verite the film jives with what the New York Times described as a "cool sizzle".

Doco on the restless and hard living Merle Haggard, an early practitioner of the raw sounding "outlaw country" style of music, whose life was forever changed when he saw Johnny Cash perform while incarcerated at Folsom Prison. Features interviews with Keith Richards, Alison Krauss, Kris Kristofferson, Dwight Yokam, John Carter Cash as well as Haggard himself.

Actor John Turturro (The Big Lebowski, Barton Fink) steps behind the camera to bring his Italian version of Buena Vista Social Club to life. Here he takes a look at the musical roots and traditions of Naples as well as its influence on the rest of the world.

Ostensibly a documentary, but perhaps more accurately described as a celebration, of Britain's most successful living architect, Norman Foster.

Following the success of his book One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest author Ken Kesey bought a bus, assembled a "merry band of pranksters" and went road tripping across America with the idea of making a film. However the bus wasn't the only thing tripping and although they shot reels of film Kesey's film never materialised. This doco, compiled by Oscar winning director Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room), sees the realisation of Kesey's original vision...

Documentary on the “Father of the Documentary” - Robert Flaherty (Nanook of the North). Presents "a complex view of the man and the controversies about his work delving into such topics as documentary ethics, ethnographic falsification, exploitation of one’s subjects and the perils of corporate sponsorship."

Doco about Liebrandt – English chef and “early adventurer in post-modernist cuisine”. By Kiwi expat director Sally Rowe.

A harrowing portrait of New Zealand writer and bipolar disorder sufferer Michael Morrissey. This documentary bluntly shows the effects that his refusal to take pharmaceutical medication - due to his fears that it will stymie his "genius" - has on both himself and the people that love him. From Costa Botes (Forgotten Silver, Candyman).

Culinary-doco about an 85-year-old sushi legend. "Torture to watch if you are on an empty stomach... a paean to perfectionism and crafty bit of food porn." -Hollywood Reporter.

The Guardian describes this austere documentary on German landscape artist Anselm Kiefer as "a deeply serious meditation on artistic practice and expression".

Doco on singer, actor and political activist Harry Belafonte. Features interviews with Sidney Poitier and Desmond Tutu amongst others.

Rutger Hauer, Charlotte Rampling and Michael York star in this drama that focuses on a dozen of the 500 characters depicted in Pieter Brugel the Elder's 1564 painting The Way To Calvary. A picture that shows Jesus Christ's suffering and religious persecution.

Documentary portrait of American “rock-star chess player" Fischer: his rise to triumph over Soviet chess champ Boris Spassky, and his decline into tabloid notoriety as a recluse and political pariah.

Documentary on Brazilian Formula One legend Ayrton Senna.

Doco on five senior atheletes, training up for the World Masters Champions.

Veteran documentarian Frederick Wiseman (La Danse) turns his eye to a local boxing gym in Austin, Texas, and focuses on the warm, inclusive, spirit inside its walls and the beauty to be found in the sport's discipline rather than the brutality of the ring.

Doco on West Indian cricket’s glory years: “The story of the West Indies’ late-‘70s ascension from happy-go-lucky ‘calypso cricketers’ to world beaters…”

French animated (hand-drawn) action-adventure, set to a "moody retro jazz score" about Dino the cat and his contrasting friendships with a stealthy cat burglar and his owner, Paris’ police commissioner.

Doco about Elmo, the beloved red Muppet, and the determined journey his puppeteer Kevin Clash took to realise his lifelong dream of working on the iconic kids show 'Sesame Street'. Winner of the Sundance Special Jury Prize 2011.

The Festival's regular collection of short animated works from around the world.

A collection of animated shorts from the graduates of the renowned Supinfocom animation school, with campuses in France and India.

Eco-aware Danish CGI film about little Sophie who finds herself kidnapped by a giant bear, and the expedition they go on into deep dark woods. "As cuddly as a plush toy, but with just enough darkness to broaden its age range up to tweens." -Variety.

Described as a “high-art variation on the haunted-house movie”, this Spanish film is set in a dilapidated, empty house in the Basque country. When the local priest comes to visit the elderly caretaker the secrets of the mysterious house begin to reveal themselves.

"Amit Dutta, one of the most intriguing experimental filmmakers of the Subcontinent, depicts in a very delicate manner the spirit of the art of a great miniature painter Nainsukh." -Rotterdam International Film Festival.

The Co-winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes 2011 accompanies a suspected murderer, a police team, a prosecutor and a doctor on their placidly paced overnight trek through the Antolian countryside in search of a dead body.

Jury Grand Prix winner at Berlin 2011. "The latest from Hungarian maestro Béla Tarr offers an extraordinary sui generis apocalyptic vision inspired by the tale of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche leaping to the aid of an abused horse on the streets of Turin." -NZIFF.

Doco about two young, idealistic, political protesters from Texas who now face years in prison after their supposed activist mentor turned out to be an FBI plant. Winner of Best Documentary at the San Francisco International Film Festival 2011.

Documentary that looks at America's litigating culture and the efforts that major corporations are undertaking to curtail democratic rights and have certain laws changed in order to protect themselves from prosecution from "the little guy".

Described by The Boston Globe as "a hard but incredibly moving, even transformative watch" this documentary about Oregon's Death By Dignity legislation follows the emotional journey of terminally ill patients who choose to end their lives, painlessly and legally. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize (Documentary) at this year's Sundance.

Documentary that goes inside the Earth Liberation Front, a radical group of greenies described by the FBI as America's "number one domestic terrorism threat". "Films are about stretching us to see the world from a different perspective." -Wall St Journal.

Doco that explores the chasm between rural farmers accepting cash to have wind turbines built on their land and the weekend lifestyle set who oppose them. "Their increasingly acrimonious struggle is a textbook microcosm of the nexus of money, politics and misinformation determining all our energy choices." -NZIFF.