Education

Winner of the Caméra d’Or for Best First Film at Cannes, this Bergman-esque drama entraps the viewer into a claustrophobic debate of fact and fiction when two boys’ parents are called to a meeting at their school.

This rebellious debut plasters teenage angst across a politically and religiously charged critique of the systems forced upon children before they’ve even had the chance to form their own opinions.

A lovesick young student accidentally becomes a right-wing cause célèbre when he fails his exam in this sharp Hungarian satire which recalls the incisive social critiques of the Romanian New Wave.

In 1979, group of young Māori and Pasifika activists sought to stop Pākehā students at the University of Auckland performing a parody of haka each capping week. Unfortunately, the consequences for those activists were severe – many were convicted of crimes. Director Katie Wolfe uncovers this largely forgotten event in our history with interviews from both in this resonant and thought-provoking documentary.

The first thing you should know is that Mavis Beacon doesn’t exist. This bright and fresh Generation Z-skewing documentary takes the viewer on a whirlwind cyber-journey to the ’90s and back.

Driven by a captivating central performance, this unsettling Oscar-nominated classroom thriller thoughtfully probes the grey area of student care versus culpability, and to what degree our systems promote or constrain our humanity.

Earning director Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu the Special Jury Prize for Filmmaking at SXSW this year, this electric debut launches our festival with a fiery trio of delinquent schoolgirls railing against the colonial system in 1950s New Zealand.