Cinema fans in Aotearoa are due to be spoiled throughout May and June with a number of film festivals hitting screens locally. Some stand out programme highlights below — but check out each film festival website for a full programme and schedule for cinemas near you!
Italian Film Festival
Launching now in Auckland, Whanganui, New Plymouth and Masterton, the Italian Film Festival celebrates 11 years with the 2026 season. If you’re not in one of these areas, check out the schedule for other cities on the website — the festival will be touring for several more months. Programme highlights include:
The classic Spaghetti Western Once Upon a Time in the West back on the big screen, a deeply influential film in the cinema oeuvre and a masterpiece of the western genre.
My Place Is Here / Il Mio Posto e Qui, a novel adaptation that has won awards across several festivals and showcases women’s evolving roles in society post-World War II.
Resene Architecture and Design Film Festival
13 cities will have the opportunity to catch the latest array of explorations into building for the community, domestic experience, hand-crafted worlds and the use of light as form with the 15th Resene Architecture and Design Film Festival kicking off in May. Programme highlights include:
Ugo La Pietra — Disequilibrating System explores the radical vision of an author who used every available medium to develop his “system”: a way of creating against the system and stereotypes, aimed at evolving the individual through new forms of perception.
The documentary that took six years to make as it followed the creation of the New National Museum in Oslo, Norway — The New Museum. This explores the tensions that define such an undertaking, including curatorial debates, logistical challenges, aesthetic and technical decisions, political backlash and evolving public expectations.
BANFF Mountain Film Festival World Tour — New Zealand
In May, this exhilarating exhibition of mountain sports and exploration arrives in Tauranga, Wellington and Blenheim before expanding to more cities across New Zealand in June.
The full programme features mountain escapades from Norway, Canada, America, Germany, France and more.
The L’Oréal French Film Festival Aotearoa
Rounding out the month strong, the French Film Festival returns across 24 cities between 27 May and 28 June (dates vary depending where you are). Programme highlights include:
Case 137 a crime drama zeroing in on the police system for which actress Léa Drucker took home the Festival de Cannes César Award for Best Actress
The Richest Woman in The World, telling the true story of Lilane Bettencourt, billionaire heiress to the L’Oréal fortune, which garnered actor Laurent Lafitte a Festival de Cannes César Award for Best Actor.