REVIEW | NZIFF | ISSUE TEN | ISOLATION 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. The following exchange is between Trevor, Madeline and Caeden on Gregg Araki's latest film, I Want Your Sex. I Want Your Sex (2026) dir. Gregg Araki USA, 90 mins Trevor: Gregg really is a fil

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 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

WEB EXCLUSIVE Written by Ricky Lai (he/him) | @rickthelai on IG & Letterboxd | Columnist Leviticus is named after the book from the Old Testament, which in part lays out the archaic laws of sexual morality. Most controversial is one commandment which, even in its slight variations of phrasing from one translation to another, has rippled appalling consequences throughout the rest of history: ‘18:22 – You shall not lie with a man as with a woman; it is an abomination’. Historia

COLUMN | ISSUE FIVE | PUORO O AOTEAROA / LOCAL MUSIC Written by Ricky Lai (he/him) | @rickthelai on IG & Letterboxd | Columnist Music and movies pair together like Marlborough wine and Eltham cheese. For this issue’s film column, I’ve plucked out three song lyrics from present-day Aotearoa and partnered them with films that, to me, evoke those words. Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa, 1961) Song: Avantdale Bowling Club, Friday Night @ The Liquor Store (2022) The lyric: “The best of We