Welcome, apparently, to our hang out for the rest of Winter. Those familiar with Lumière's previous attempts at independent publishing should note that the tangibles of print have been curtailed this year for the more flexible realms of the Internet. As much as we champion the tree-chopping lustre of bound pages and ink-bled paper, this new weblog allows us the freedom to have our say here, now and beyond the obesely scheduled flickering pictures of the Telecom New Zealand International Film Festivals.

One can, of course, never have too much of a good thing, and it's become clear to us that even a companion magazine will never do justice to a festival whose own weight of selection is barely contained within the beltline of its hardcopy programme. Online, we can at least stretch our pants a little, and make writing about the festival a current and ongoing pursuit. Feature articles and film reviews will continue to spawn throughout the course of this traveling carnival (it journeys nationwide), while the weblog will update itself daily during Auckland and Wellington stopovers. Proceedings open in Auckland on July 8th – plenty of time to trade those All Blacks tickets and other banal sporting engagements for the considerable warmth and excitement of a fully-packed festival theater.

Until then, gatecrash nzff.telecom.co.nz for all your other festival needs.