10 Mar 2019

The return of the French Film Festival

From Standing Room Only, 1:45 pm on 10 March 2019

Next week sees the opening of the popular French Film Festival, taking place all over the country - 17 cinemas in 13 venues, from the big cities to Arrowtown, Martinborough and Havelock North.  

When the French Film Festival made its debut in New Zealand 17 years ago, it was just one of several regional film showcases.  Since then it's grown to be one of the biggest festivals in the country, second only to the New Zealand International Festival in July.  Audiences have gone up a staggering 700 percent since 2012. 

In fact the 2019 version is bigger than ever - but it very nearly didn't happen this year.   Simon Morris talks to two of the main organisers of the festival - Iain Macleod, who by day manages Wellington's Penthouse Cinema, and Nathalie Buckrell from the Alliance Francaise, and asks what happened?

The Festival kicks off this week and runs for two weeks in Arrowtown, Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton, Havelock North, Martinborough, Nelson, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Tauranga, Timaru and Wellington. The Opening Night at Wellington's Embassy Theatre takes place on March 12.

Click here for details.