As cricket and rugby seasons messily converge, March offers clarity in film-going circles. The annual World Cinema Showcase resurfaces as Summer subsides and the colder months encroach, signposting the beginning of the local film festival season with a cachet of exceptional, contentious, long-awaited, classic and returning films. Some of our highlights include The Beat My Heart Skipped and Tsotsi (opening night); part II of Lars von Trier's USA trilogy Manderlay (not starring Nicole Kidman); the criminally overdue Millennium Actress; spag-western A Fistful of Dynamite and long-lost Winter Soldier; and reprives for NZIFF thumb-uppers The Child and Darwin's Nightmare (among others).

The World Cinema Showcase travels south from Christchurch (March 16-29) to Dunedin (March 22-April 7), then northwards via Wellington (April 6-19) and Auckland (April 20-May 10). Head over to the previously dormant Festival Reader for a full Showcase media release, lineup of films, and upcoming festival previews and reviews....[Read More]