WEB EXCLUSIVE | REVIEW | NZIFF This is part of a series of roundtable discussions and extended dialogues conducted by Ricky Lai (@rickthelai), Trevor Pronoso (@CleverGurl), Madeline Smith (@prime4illusion), and Caeden Tipler (@ctipler) on films that have premiered at NZIFF 2026. Dao (2026) dir. Alain Gomis France / Guinea-Bissau / Senegal, 185 mins The following exchange is between Ricky and Trevor on Alan Gomis' latest film, Dao. Trevor: If you told me this was a three-hour

WEB EXCLUSIVE | REVIEW | NZIFF Written by Ricky Lai | Ricky Lai (he/him) | @rickthelai on IG & Letterboxd | Columnist Remake dir. Ross McElwee United States, 114 minutes ‘You can see the lettering in the mud.’ Some folks just can’t put down the camera. Earlier in the week before seeing Ross McElwee’s meta-documentary Remake, I caught Brydie O’Connor’s Barbara Forever, a feature on American avant-garde pioneer of queer cinema, Barbara Hammer. Hammer was essentially an archiv

WEB EXCLUSIVE | REVIEW | NZIFF Written by Trevor Pronoso | Letterboxd: @CleverGurl | Instagram: @trev.pro | Contributing Writer Leibniz – Chronicle of a Lost Painting (2026) dir. Edgar Reitz, Anatol Schuster Germany, 104 mins With the motion picture camera came the promise of ambient facticity no longer as something to be struggled for but as an automatic by-product of the medium itself. It appeared as though stories could be immediately embedded in the reality in which the

WEB EXCLUSIVE | REVIEW | NZIFF Written by Trevor Pronoso | Letterboxd: @CleverGurl | Instagram: @trev.pro | Contributing Writer For the dedicated cinephiles reading this, most discourse surrounding Dry Leaf hits the nail on the head as to why this should be on your immediate radar: an imaginative synthesis between impressionist/post-impressionist painting alongside the patient cinematic sensibilities of Abbas Kiarostami. The real kicker is filmmaker Alexandre Koberidze's ing

WEB EXCLUSIVE | REVIEW | NZIFF Written by Trevor Pronoso | Letterboxd: @CleverGurl | Instagram: @trev.pro | Contributing Writer The Wizard of the Kremlin dir. Olivier Assayas France/UK/USA, 145 mins Olivier Assayas is a known admirer of Guy Debord, which—despite my not having seen many Assayas films—allows me to make the fair assertion that The Wizard of the Kremlin is a work of détournement (he'd probably let film writers like me make such comparisons before he does), albei

WEB EXCLUSIVE | REVIEW | NZIFF Written by Trevor Pronoso | Letterboxd: @CleverGurl | Instagram: @trev.pro | Contributing Writer The Ice Tower dir. Lucile Hadžihalilović France, 145 mins There's this quote by Terence Davies that immediately popped into my mind halfway through watching The Ice Tower, where he talks about his first time seeing Singin' in the Rain (1952) at the age of seven: "During that scene in the rain, I cried and cried and cried… [My sister] asked, 'Why are

REVIEW | WEB EXCLUSIVE Written by Tashi Donnelly (she/her) | @tashi_rd | Editor Ahead of opening night, I caught up with director Grace Augustine to talk about reimagining Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People for present-day Aotearoa. You can read that interview here. She told me the production was motivated in part by increasing nitrate contamination in our freshwater, and by a desire to create political theatre that asks audiences to think critically about the systems gove

REVIEW | ISSUE NINE | WHAKAKATA / HUMOUR Written by Trevor Pronoso | Letterboxd: @CleverGurl | Instagram: @trev.pro | Contributing Writer With Hasan in Gaza (2025) dir. Kamal Aljafari France / Germany / Palestine / Qatar / Switzerland, 106 mins Within the first 30 minutes of this film, I could already tell the differing cinematic temperaments of director Kamal Aljafari and his tour guide, Hasan Elboubou. Throughout With Hasan in Gaza, Kamal would often instruct Hasan to take

REVIEW | ISSUE NINE | WHAKAKATA / HUMOUR Written by Ricky Lai (he/him) | @rickthelai on IG & Letterboxd | Columnist The first UniFest short film competition resembles the kind of combination between creative outlet and filmmaking practice which I would have adored during my studies. It’s reassuring to see a body of undergrads wishing for the same, taking that into their own hands – run by the students, for the students. Each entry was held down by only two creative constraint

REVIEW | ISSUE NINE | WHAKAKATA / HUMOUR Written by Liam Hansen (they/them) | @liamhanse.n | Associate Editor It’s taken Paolo Bertolin, the New Zealand International Film Festival’s artistic director, a couple of years to find his footing away from the prestige of his homeland of Italy to the bonkers reality of New Zealand’s film industry. While the government struggles to comprehend the value of anything less than the millions generated by Peter Jackson and Taika Waititi as

REVIEW | ISSUE NINE | WHAKAKATA / HUMOUR Written by Trevor Pronoso | Letterboxd: @CleverGurl | Instagram: @trev.pro | Contributing Writer Out of the Blue (2006) dir. Robert Sarkies Aotearoa New Zealand, 103 mins During the post-screening Q&A, actor Matthew Sunderland shares something remarkably revealing when asked about the process of getting into the character of David Grey: that it was relatively easy to understand the psyche of David because most of what he needed to kno

WEB EXCLUSIVE | REVIEW & INTERVIEW Written by Skye Lunson-Storey (she/they/ia) | @uku_rangi | Arts, Culture, and Te Ao Māori Editor Dates: May 7, 8, 9 Location: Basement Theatre Tickets: $15-$28 Use code GOODCANT to have 20% off tickets Serving Can’t Created by Marshall Lorenzo is an energetic and chaotic dive into the absurdities of modern work, capitalism, and burnout. Packed with hyper-pop transitions, bright lighting, and a constant rotation of eccentric characters. Mars

FEATURE | ISSUE FOUR/20 | RONGO Ā / DRUGS Written by Jed Scott (he/him) | @jed__scott | Contributing Writer Hello Debate readers! I have decided to review albums in this amazing magazine because I think my friends are getting tired of my ramblings, and I need other avenues to discuss music. Anyways, here are 6 new albums from 2026 that I would like to discuss with you all. Listen to them and support artists! Also, feel free to rip out this page and burn it (safely!) if you

REVIEW | WEB EXCLUSIVE | ARTS Written by Sanskruti Banerjee ( she/her) | @san._.banerjee | Contributing Writer BEHIND AERA THE LABEL Aera The Label, featuring their limited edition runs of ready to wear clothing made their debut of the Ride My Coattail collection, at Ahua Fashion Week 2026. Aera’s house of experimentation and stories revolves around conceptual fashion, every piece underpinned with whimsical, lace and flowy incorporations. A brand that celebrates community an

RICK'S REEL RECOMMENDATIONS | COLUMN | TUAKIRI / IDENTITY Written by Ricky Lai (he/him) | @rickthelai on IG & Letterboxd | Film Columnist We're All Going To The Worlds Fair (Jane Schoenbrun, 2021) Spirit of the Beehive (Víctor Erice, 1973) The infallible tale of Mary Shelley’s ‘ Frankenstein ’ has seen a well-deserved refresh in the people’s consciousness since it was resurrected last Halloween season by Guillermo Del Toro, the monster-lovin’ sweetheart. As much as I wa