By Kate Rodger
The New Zealand International Film Festival kicks off in Auckland this Thursday, offering Kiwi audiences the chance to see Beasts of the Southern Wild, a movie the critics are raving about.
It has been described as a haunting and beautiful American fairy tale and an example of why the imagination is more important than a big budget.
The movie opens the festival this year, and with its superlative-laden reviews and festival awards to its credit already, this unique film will be a very popular one.
From across the Tasman, a Cannes audience favourite this year is heartwarming musical-comedy Sapphires.
Based on a true story and set in the ‘60s, Sapphires are the Australian version of The Supremes, who travel to Vietnam to entertain the troops.
With Bridesmaid's actor Chris O'Dowd starring opposite some excellent fresh Aussie talent, this could be the feel-good hit of the fest.
There is plenty to plunder on the local front too, and one excellent option is documentary How Far is Heaven.
Shot in the small, isolated North Island settlement of Jerusalem, this story centres on three nuns who came into the tight community to live. Much of the story is told through the eyes of some of the young locals.
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