Campion film kick starts festival

Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) will open with Dame Jane Campion’s award-winning new film, The Power of the Dog.

The film met with a rapturous reception on the world stage at the recent Venice Film Festival, and this month Campion picked up a Silver Lion award for best director.

Made for Netflix with additional financial support from the New Zealand Film Commission, The Power of the Dog was shot entirely at South Island locations in 2020.

Based on the 1967 novel of the same name by Thomas Savage, two sons, edging into their 40s and unmarried, run the family’s successful cattle ranch. A long-established routine is disrupted when gentlemanly brother George unexpectedly brings home new wife Rose and her studious son Peter. Rough-hewn, toxically male brother Phil Burbank lashes out relentlessly, tormenting mother and son as unwelcome interlopers.

Its star-studded line-up includes Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee as well as Kiwi actress, Thomasin McKenzie.
NZIFF 2021 will open with The Power of the Dog in Auckland on October 28, Christchurch the following night, and Wellington and Dunedin follow the week after. Following its exclusive NZIFF premiere, Transmission Films will release the film theatrically across the country on November 11, and globally on Netflix on December 1.

Six other NZIFF films have already been announced for the 2021 programme. Fiona Clark: Unafraid, Flee, Memoria, Nine Days, Undine and Zola are the first of many extraordinary international and local films set to entertain Kiwis when the festival brings its celebration of cinema to 13 towns and cities around the country this spring.