Spain

Light and shadows in a crumbling mansion in the Basque countryside are the central players in this exquisite, painterly study of the passage of time. “An exquisitely high-art variation on the haunted-house movie.” — Hollywood Reporter

Glorious highly imaginative animated images in myriad formats, selected with an eye to the giant screen, from the world’s best by NZIFF veteran/Melbourne International Animation Festival supremo Malcolm Turner.

Celebrating 40 years of the Film Festival: Ana Torrent, surely one of the great child actors, and Geraldine Chaplin in Carlos Saura’s haunting 1976 classic. “A gripping, profoundly mysterious movie.” — The Guardian

Admiring, hugely enjoyable, superbly shot doco displays the work and traces the global success of Britain’s most successful and influential architect. “A visually striking tribute to an intrepid social utopian.” — Empire

This delicate Argentinean road movie depicting the touching encounter between a long-distance truck driver and the woman and child he takes as passengers won the Caméra d’Or for Best First Film at Cannes this year.

A circus, two clowns, one ballerina, a blood-and-bullets-riddled love triangle, and lots of dark humour. The Tarantino-headed jury gave The Last Circus Best Screenplay and Best Director awards, Venice Film Festival 2010.

A fresh, funny take on love in the city: a romcom in which the lovers have yet to meet. “Immensely likable… the Buenos Aires-set love story is unique to the Argentine capital, yet universal in theme.” — Variety

What do you do when redundancy strikes and everything you know about life you learned from programming a Cinematheque? A love of movies connects to the world outside the cinema in this charmingly droll comedy.